Note on pronunciation : The «ie» was pronounced like English «ee», not like English «eye»

Occasional musings, Geistesblitze, photos, illustrations an such like. by a «resident alien», who’s got landed on United states soil from a far-away globe called «Germany».

Word-of the thirty days: Liebeskummer

A mix of Liebe (appreciation) and Kummer (sadness, sorrow) that refers to the mindset of men and women whoever romantic life just isn’t going better, especially the sadness sensed by jilted lovers.

10 feedback:

Hello Ulrich, In my opinion this is a wonderful phrase, and I also can’t think about an equal in English. although at some point or any other, all, or perhaps the majority of, of us has wanted to utilize it. What’s the publication around? I adore the subject.

The succinct subject regarding the book, Moselfahrt aus Liebeskummer, is hard to convert gracefully–the exact meaning was «Moselle lake travels as a result of Liebeskummer». It really is a novella, written in the 30s, describing a vacation along and on the Mosel (Moselle) river when the narrator attempts to tackle their Liebeskummer. It has loving explanations associated with lake, the villages that range it, therefore the people that build wine there–I lived in one of these brilliant villages as I visited elementary school.

Upon rereading passages from it, though, i have to confess your concept is probably the good thing of the publication!

«The Germans should have a term because of it. Doppelgedanken, perhaps: the impression, whenever checking out, that own mind is giving birth on the terms as they show up on the webpage. Such could be the ego that during these unusual cases your ask yourself, a€?exactly how could the writer need known the things I had been thinking?a€?

I do believe the estimate implies that the reviewer stocks exactly what your writings features over and over shown, the Germans tend to be professionals at discovering phrase that correctly recognize says of head. Liebeskummer was just one more instance.

: Thx for aiming this overview completely. I retrieved the evaluation from our stack of old newspapers is reused (I’d misied they the other day).

Their quote, made further compelling b/c it will be the beginning paragraph of assessment, confirms, whilst say, it is very easy to coin newer terms immediately in German by hitching collectively two separate keywords (typically nouns, but not necessarily very). Doppelgedanke try an example–I’ve not witnessed they in German, but Germans would understand it into the framework by which it’s granted, offered they get the allusion for the well-established DoppelgA¤nger.

I’m furthermore, without a doubt, considerably used because of the ‘official’ acknowledgment of the capacity for German inside the part and astounded your customer believes by doing this, that she discovers it–apparently–convenient, in certain cases, to ‘think in German’.

It surely motivates us to continue using my word-of-the-month posts. But I also need point out that English supplies coinages having no similar in German, and I may write a thread eventually working with this subservient subject.

That is an interesting topic, the English coinages with no actual counterpart in German. I inquire if you will see in English–and perhaps you will–the type of keywords I have found very wonderful in German, those compounds reflecting, really precisely, a particular state of mind. Not every one of their German advice have inked that but a number of bring and I fancy them much better than their unique English equivalents, or even equivalents, by way of example, fraidy-cat versus Angsthase. I actually do wish you will definitely continue with your keywords of this thirty days. I must say I enjoy them.

The conventional examples of English terms w/o genuine similar in German become «reasonable play» and «common sense»–they have been used such as that in German long before the present tsunami of English statement started to hit German, which include words for which there’s no necessity anyway, like «game», whose connotations have been in absolutely no way distinct from compared to German Spiel. In teenager consult, on the web, marketing etcetera German presents itself today as a mixture of German and English. I am, in reality, thinking about seeing how all of this will pan in the end–i.e. if this will blow more than as a fad or could have a lasting effect on German, e.g. somewhat increase the language. My guess would be that second will happen.

The upshot is when I want to begin a bond on English terms without actual cognates in German, the specific situation is created more complex from this situation. Regardless, i am starting a typical page where We accumulate choice phrases–I require certainly over «reasonable enjoy» and «good judgment».

Gorgeous word, Liebeskummer, and there is a Dutch counterpart, liefdesverdriet. It really is incredible there is no English term for this. It happens sometimes that I’m wanting to translate an English appearance into Dutch, so there only is not any right keyword. I am going to remember to let you know, Ulrich.