Across the Fence

You have most certainly heard if not used this Germanism in the English language, Zeitgeist. Germans pronounce it with a “ts” in the beginning, ‘tsite-guy-st. It translates as spirit of the time and means exactly that. The term itself has not always been around, though the phenomenon has. I would almost go so far as […]

It gets quieter on Puget Sound these days. With Labor Day a month behind us and crabbing season long over, most boaters have started wintering their vessels. Sometimes, on a windy day, you might glimpse one or another sailboat between the islands or a motorboat speed up the Narrows. Now is the time to contemplate […]

You probably have heard this Germanism in the English language before: Schadenfreude (pronounce: shah-den-froy-duh, meaning glee bout damage). And probably hardly anybody is immune against it, unless they are saints. Though, allegedly, there are such people. Apparently, the term turned up in the German language around 1740, about a century later in the English language. […]

If you are familiar with dog breeds, you might have come across another Germanism in the English language: Spitz (pronounce: shpits, meaning pointed). Indeed, the dog race is named for the shape of its muzzle. Apparently (thank you, Wikipedia!) Spitz dogs have already been depicted in ancient Egypt around 2600 B.C. and in ancient Greece […]

September is the hiking season at its best. At least in moderate climate zones. And as hiking is of such importance in German history – even as to being considered political protest by specific movements during the Empire and, later, in the Third Reich – my guess is that this is the reason that the […]

Among my favorite candies as a child were Haribo Gummibärchen (pronounce approximately: goommy-bear-hen), meaning small gummi bears, today’s Germanism in the English language. My mother bought them for us kids, every once in a while, probably because they could be dealt out in small amounts. They came in two sizes, but I’m not sure whether […]

Of late, I have encountered quite a few fun discussions in Facebook groups that dealt with the meaning of some English terms. Some simply said that specific terms didn’t even exist for a specific item or meaning. E.g. one American-English speaker said that pasty was not a term for baked goods, and that those were […]

I ran into the English Germanism Seltzer during my very first visit in the U.S. as a fifteen-year-old. My uncle in Maine loved to drink Seltzer with just a hint of natural fruit flavor. I tasted it and cringed. When I returned to Germany and told my mother about it, she stated, “You must have […]

The English Germanism I am going to scrutinize today takes us into the musical era of the 1980s in Austria. Back then, the Neue Deutsche Welle (prounounce ‘noy-ah ‘doytsh-ah ‘vellah, meaning New German Wave) was celebrating one success after another – the sound was based of punk and rock elements, the language was German, and […]