Word of the Month: Unglücksrabe

Word of the Month: Index

A Pechvogel was the first 'compound creature' I drew and posted on my blog. I'm finally getting around to giving him a companion in misery. Unglück is the opposite of Glück (good fortune, luck), and we encountered a Rabe (raven) already in connection with Rabeneltern. Like a Pechvogel, an Unglücksrabe is a person who has run into some misfortune—he and a Pechvogel are partners in bad luck.



The most famous Unglücksrabe in German literature is Hans Huckebein, the anti-hero of a story told in pictures by Wilhelm Busch. I have to do some more research to find out why ravens are associated with bad luck in this expression.

[Source: Wild Things in the German Language: Kindle/paperback version | iBooks version]

Word of the Month: Rabeneltern

Word of the Month: Index

Raben (plural of Rabe) are ravens and Eltern parents. In combination, they refer to parents who neglect, if not abuse, their children. If you want to refer to a bad mother or bad father individually, you can use Rabenmutter or Rabenvater, respectively.

These words are common in German, although they do give ravens an undeservedly bad rap. When one finds little ravens outside their nest before they are able to fly, it's not, as people thought, because their parents wanted to get rid of them, but because they are safer there from predatory birds like hawks. [Sick 2012]

[Source: Wild Things in the German Language: Kindle version | iBooks version]