KrautBlog

Word of the Month: Index A Schmierfink is a close relative of a Schmutzfink , whom we have already encountered (WoM Nov. 2010). Schmie...

Armut means "poverty", and a Zeugnis is a certificate or, in an educational context, a report card. Armutszeugnis referred orig...

Word of the Month: Index Word of the Month: Index Land means, in this connection, "countryside" (as the opposite of "c...

Word of the Month: Index Sie wissen nichts, aber wissen alles besser . (They know nothing, but know everything better.) Comment by Czech ...

Gnade means "grace" or "mercy", and Brot means "bread". The term refers to the charity someone receives in r...

With the present WoM, I'm returning to a theme I have touched upon in previous posts ( Wutbürger , German funk ). This time, I'm in...

Word of the Month: Index A Kadaver is a cadaver or corpse, and Gehorsam means "obedience." Kadavergehorsam refers to an unques...

Word of the Month: Index Here's another addition to Leben ("life") that creates a special meaning: A Lüge is a lie, and a ...

Here’s yet another addition to the KrautBlog aviary. Spaß can mean “fun”, as in “Wir haben Spaß gehabt”(“We’ve had fun”), or “joke”, as in ...

Word of the Month: Index Leben means "life" and a Künstler is an artist. Lebenskünstler refers not so much to people who turn ...

Neid means "envy", one of the deadly sins (it's also the last name of the coach of the German national women's soccer tea...

Word of the Month: Index Putzen means "to clean" and a Fimmel is a craze for or an obsession with something. Putzflimmel denot...

Our Schnapsdrossel (WoM for March) needs a drinking companion, and here he is. A Schluck is a gulp or swig (from schlucken - "to swa...

Prinzip is German for “principle” and a Reiter is a “rider” (of horses). Hitch the two words together, and you have a person who acts on p...

Word of the Month: Index Another addition to the KrautBlog aviary: Schnaps (one p!) should be known to English speakers—it's a gener...

I selected the present word of the month after reading, in translation, Jürgen Habermas's essay Leadership and Leitkultur , which recen...

Word of the Month: Index Let me start with a story: The coach of the German national soccer team, Jogi Löw, nominated two forwards (Podols...

See (fem.) means "sea" and Bär means "bear". Seebär is usually used together with alt (old): Ein alter Seebär is th...

This compound noun hitches together Volk (people--as in "the American people") and Verhetzung (stirring up of hatred, especially...

The term is used, in the narrower sense, to refer to speech made incomprehensible because it is a mixture of words from different languages,...