02/01/2002   English German
  Edition # 36  
San Francisco, 02-01-2002

German Influences in English

Michael Have you ever seen that some cars have a small plastic wind deflector stuck to the frame of the front side window? According to the "Herrington Catalog," this is typically European and is called a "Wind-und-Sturm-Shield" (illustration 1). You can often find such absurdities because Americans think: It's German if it has lots of umlauts! And everything that comes from Germany has a quality bonus. You wouldn't believe how proud an American is to drive not just a BMW or Mercedes, but even just a Volkswagen. A Jetta driver in the USA enjoys about the same reputation as an Alfa Romeo or MG driver in Germany: young, dynamic, sporty, slightly exotic.
Figure [1]: The "Wind-and-Storm" plastic thing

Figure [2]: The car cleaning product "Klasse

But that brings me to an interesting topic: the incorporation of German words into the English language, which also exists! In Germany, people often use English words to appear cool. "Networking" instead of "Kontakte knüpfen," for example. On the other hand, German words in the English language mainly serve to make the writer, who is already dealing with unusual words, appear particularly educated, as perhaps only 5% of Americans understand them.

The New Yorker," for example, is a weekly magazine read not only in New York City but nationwide, featuring lengthy articles that even I, after five years in America, still have to work through with a dictionary. Or do any of you newsletter-reading know-it-alls perhaps know what "impetuous," "to imbue," "swashbuckler," "prescience," "apt," or "to rummage" mean? "Portend," "putative," "to loathe," or "tizzy"? Ha! In case you're interested: "impetuous," "to imbue," "swashbuckler," "prescience," "apt," "to rummage." And "portend," "putative," "to loathe," and "tizzy." But what I actually wanted to say is: Americans sometimes use German words to express things for which there is no English word. "Schadenfreude," for example. It's mentioned in the book "Word Freak" by Stefan Fatsis (illustration 3). You heard right, there is no English word for the most beautiful of all joys! Or "Doppelgänger." It was recently in The New Yorker (illustration 4).

Figure [3]: The English word "schadenfreude" is
borrowed directly from German and refers to the feeling of pleasure or satisfaction derived from witnessing someone else's misfortune or suffering.>

Figure [4]: The English word "doppelgänger

There is indeed the word "look-alike" for people who bear a striking resemblance to others (usually celebrities), but the eerie notion that there is someone who not only looks like you but also leads a similar life and perhaps has even stolen the original's identity is a nightmare expressed only by the English word "doppelgänger." I don't need to elaborate on "Kindergarten," as everyone knows that anyway.

Figure [5]: The word "schtick" in a film review

Some American expressions that sound somewhat German also originate from Yiddish. For example, when the well-known film critic Roger Ebert writes about the old film "Dead Poet's Society" (Club der toten Dichter), stating that the main actor Robin Williams oscillates between "restraint and schtick" (illustration 5), educated Americans understand that Williams fluctuates between restraint and gimmicky routine. In colloquial usage, a "schtick" is either a characteristic "piece" of something or a gimmick that someone repeatedly performs. What, you don't believe me? In illustration 6, you can see the entry in Webster's Dictionary, the "Duden" of the English-speaking world. It explains that "schtick" or "shtick" is Yiddish and originally comes from German. Another example is "to schlep" for schleppen: "I don't like to schlep my bags!" is quite understandable English if you encounter someone with at least a basic education. http://koshernosh.com/yiddish.htm The translation to English is: "You will find the most common phrases.

Figure [6]: The word "schtick" in the dictionary

And some expressions may sound like their German "doppelgängers," but they mean something slightly different: "Spiel," for example. When an American says "we went through the same spiel again," they mean that the same performance or routine happened again. And the English word "angst" doesn't exactly mean the German fear, but rather existential anxiety with a Freudian (or whatever kind of psychological) undertone.

Recently, in a meeting where Dieter (the other Bavarian at Netscape) and I were sitting with about ten other people, the head of quality assurance wanted to report on something a manager with the rather German-sounding name "Rick Gruenhagen" (an American) had said -- and accidentally called him "Rick Grugenheimer." Grugenheimer! Dieter and I couldn't hold back. We laughed until we both had tears in our eyes. And for the next 15 minutes, no one could say anything because every time we looked at each other, one of us would start laughing again. The participants in the meeting who had dialed in over the phone had no idea what was going on. And even today, when I say "Grugenheimer!" we burst into laughter.

And something else: Sometimes advertisements come to the house that make me laugh my head off. Maybe it's because I'm easily amused, but a vacuum cleaner named "ORECK" -- I just can't help myself.

Figure [7]: The Super Vacuum Cleaner "ORECK

I scanned the direct mail item for the dear newsletter audience in illustration 7 -- please send your humor ratings! In Germany, it probably wouldn't have a market chance, as the risk of confusion with the word "Dreck" (dirt) is too great. This reminds me of the story about the German cat food "Kinky," which an advertising agency supposedly withdrew at the last moment in the eighties because "Kinky" simply means "perverse" in English ( http://www.BerlinOnline.de/wissen/berliner_zeitung/archiv/2001/0605 / medien/0008/index.html).

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