Occasional musings, Geistesblitze, photo, paintings an such like. by a «resident alien», who’s landed on American dirt from a far-away globe also known as «Germany».
Word of the month: Liebeskummer
A variety of Liebe (appreciate) and Kummer (sadness, sorrow) that refers to the state of mind of men and women whoever relationship is not heading better, especially the sorrow noticed by jilted enthusiasts.
10 comments:
Hey Ulrich, In my opinion this really is a delightful phrase, and I also can’t contemplate a similar in English. although at one time or any other, all, or at least a lot of, people need must put it to use. What’s the guide pertaining to? I really like the subject.
The succinct subject from the publication, Moselfahrt aus Liebeskummer, is tough to translate gracefully–the literal definition are «Moselle River Trip because Liebeskummer». It is a novella, written in the 30s, describing a visit along and on the Mosel (Moselle) lake when the narrator tries to over come his Liebeskummer. It has warm information from the river, the villages that range they, and also the people that build wine there–I lived in one of them villages while I went along to primary class.
Upon rereading passages from it, however, I must admit that name is perhaps the best part of this publication!
«The Germans need an expression because of it. Doppelgedanken, maybe: the sensation, when reading, that the own mind is pregnancy on the keywords as they show up on the web page. Such could be the pride that in these unusual circumstances you inquire, a€?How could the writer posses understood what I ended up being thinking?a€?
I do believe the quotation suggests that the customer shares exactly what your website has actually over and over shown, that the Germans are experts at coming up with terms that properly identify says of mind. Liebeskummer is actually another instance.
: Thx for pointing this assessment down. We recovered the assessment from your stack of papers as recycled (I had misied it the other day).
The quote, produced much more persuasive b/c this is the opening part regarding the overview, verifies, when you state, that it’s simple to coin brand new terms on the spot in German by hitching along two independent statement (usually nouns, yet not always so). Doppelgedanke are an example–I’ve never seen they in German, but Germans would comprehend it in the perspective whereby really supplied, supplied they obtain the allusion toward well-established DoppelgA¤nger.
I’m furthermore, obviously, quite definitely taken of the ‘official’ recognition within this capacity for German from inside the paragraph and surprised that reviewer thinks like that, that she finds it–apparently–convenient, in some instances, to ‘think in German’.
It certainly inspires me to carry on with my word-of-the-month posts. But In addition wish point out that English supplies coinages which have no similar in German, and I may produce a thread shortly coping with this subservient subject.
That’s an appealing subject, the English coinages with no genuine similar in German. We ponder for a moment get in English–and maybe you will–the kind of terminology I find thus wonderful in German, those compounds highlighting, most properly, a certain mindset. Not every one of your own German instances do that but a few bring and I also fancy them a lot better than their particular English competitors, if you don’t equivalents, such as, fraidy-cat versus Angsthase. I actually do expect you can expect to carry on with your keywords of this thirty days. I must say I see them.
The conventional examples of English phrases w/o genuine equivalent in German include «reasonable gamble» and «common sense»–they were used that way in German a long time before current tsunami of English terminology started to hit German, which includes terms which is why you don’t have at all, like «game», whose connotations have been in not a chance distinct from compared to German Spiel. In teen talk, using the internet, marketing an such like German occurs now as a combination of German and English. I’m, indeed, contemplating seeing exactly how all this will pan call at the end–i.e. if this will blow over as a fad or will have a long-lasting influence on German, e.g. dramatically build the language. My imagine could be your latter can happen.
The upshot is that if i wish to starting a bond on English conditions without actual cognates in German, the specific situation is created harder by this situation. Regardless, I’m starting a full page where We accumulate candidate phrases–I need undoubtedly significantly more than «reasonable gamble» and «wise practice».
Beautiful term, Liebeskummer, as there are a Dutch counterpart, liefdesverdriet. It really is remarkable that there is no English keyword for this. It occurs sometimes that i am trying to convert an English term into Dutch, there simply is not any proper word. I’ll be sure you reveal, Ulrich.