Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day.
And today, we’ll take a look at one of those weird under-the-radar words.
You know… the ones you never really notice until you’re made aware of them. And then you start seeing them everywhere.
Kind of like opportunities. Or the beauty of small things. Or your coworker’s pee-markings on your desk… I mean, no one likes snitches, and marking your own desk is one thing – but marking half the office?
Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, let’s take a look at the meaning of
melden
Melden looks fairly similar to melting and moulding but neither one is remotely related. In fact, melden is one of those verbs that doesn’t really have an English relative anymore. At least none that I could think of or dig up.
The origin of melden is not known for sure, but one possible root is the campily ancient Indo-European root *meldh– which was about… talking to whatever deities they had.
This root is the origin of the Slavic branch of “моли” (“moli“), which is in essence about asking someone to do something – either “intensively” like in Russian where is about begging, heavy pleading. Or just normal asking like in Bulgarian where моля “molja” is the word for please.
The German melden and its Germanic ancestors on the other hand – if they really are related to that root – focused on a different aspect of prayer: telling God what you want.
“Hello God, thanks for the great work on the dinner.
Please find attached your To-Do list the coming week.
Last week’s tasks of World Peace and Corona cure are still pending,
so make sure to include those as well.
Amen.”
Now, of course the Germanic tribes didn’t pray like that, even though they were a little more buddy-buddy with their gods than… well… monotheistic religions. I mean, seriously… Greek and Germanic Gods would drink, have orgies and hang out on earth all the time. Wouldn’t it be kind of cool if we believed that God sometimes takes human form to hang out at the gym? I mean, God’s arms and shoulders sure look in shape in that Michelangelo painting.
But anyway, if melden really does have ties to the idea of praying, the meaning shifted a LONG time ago. Because already over a thousand years ago, the core idea of the branch was relaying information. And it truly hasn’t changed much.
Because melden is still a pretty dry, pragmatic word for reporting, passing on information.
- “Dieser Facebookpost von Maria gefällt mir nicht. Ich melde ihn.”
“Aber… warum?”
“Weil ich Cancel-Man bin!”
“OMG… Cancel-Man! Bitte tu mir nichts.” - “I don’t like this Facebook post of Maria. I’ll report it.”
“But.. why?”
“Because I’m Cancel-Man.”
“OMG Cancel-Man. Please don’t hurt me.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- In Berlin wurden in den letzten 24 Stunden 504 neue Corona-Fälle gemeldet.
- In Berlin, 504 new cases of Corona have been reported within the last 24 hours.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Maria ist noch in Berlin gemeldet.
- Maria is still registered (as a citizen) in Berlin.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
As you can see, the idea is not reporting in the sense of a reporter, though the noun Eilmeldung means breaking news for instance.
But generally, the gist is a somewhat formal passing on of formal information. And that also shows in the related words.
- Salmonellen sind eine meldepflichtige Krankheit.
- Salmonellae are a reportable/notifiable disease.
(is this the right word for “have to be reported to the authorities”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Eilmeldung: Deutsch vereinfacht seine Artikel.
- Breaking news: German simplifies its articles.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Weil auf dem Pass keine Adresse steht, braucht man oft noch seine Meldebescheinigung – zum Beispiel, wenn man ein Konto eröffnen will.
- Because there is no address on the passport, you often also need the proof of residence – for example, if you want to open a bank account.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- In meiner Wohnung ist jetzt ein Rauchmelder.
- In my apartment, there’s now a smoke detector.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
My Rauchmelder won’t report all smoke it detects though, because it ain’t no snitch. Am I right, Rauchmelder? I know you can see the screen from the ceiling. Snitches get stitches, you know?
Anyway, if you’ve lived in a German speaking country, I am sure you’ve seen some of those uses already.
But still, melden would be kind of a niche word, if it wasn’t for… its use with a self reference: sich melden.
The Meaning of “sich melden”
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What is this? Why did you post this here?
Dieses Post hat mir gefällt.
Danke!
freut mich :).
Kleine Korrektur:
Hi Emanuel,
A quick question about keiner vs niemand…. (apologies – not directly to do with the purpose of your article :))
In one example, you say:
“Sie saß vor drei Wochen vor meiner Tür. Ich habe Flyer ausgehängt, aber bis jetzt hat sich keiner gemeldet.“
And in the test, I believe one of the examples had something like: “Niemand hat sich gemeldet”
Are keiner/niemand completely interchangeable or are they used in different ways?
thanks
Ade
When “keiner” refers to “nobody” then it’s completely interchangeable with “niemand”.
But “keiner” can also refer to a bunch of objects.
In that case, you CAN’T use “niemand”.
So regarding vermelden, is it just not used at all even on the news? Like it went extinct?
Is it just a formal melden like mitteilen?
Is there other difference? Wil people be looking at me if I use this word during a conversation?
Absolutely DON’T use it in conversation, unless you want to sound outdated on purpose. It’s not really out of date, and you can find it in newspapers here and there but it’s not common enough to call it a formal “melden” either.
Don’t use it, it’ll only make your text/speech LESS natural.
seems like it is used on Austrian TV in the news quite often, something like “es gibt <…> zu vermelden”
Hallo
Ich habe das Folgende gelesen:
Guten Tag koennten Sie mich bitte mit Frau Meyer verbinden? Hier ist Frau Blau. Sie meldet sich nicht.
Kann “sich melden” im Sinne von jemandem antworten verwendet werden? Vielleicht im Zusammenhang mit dem Annehmen des Telefons?
Vielen Dank!!!
Das kann man so verwenden, ja. Wobei in deinem Beispiel nicht klar ist, ob die Person spezifisch Telefon meint, oder allgemein “getting in touch”.
Ich glaube, ich würde es als “I can’t reach her” übersetzen.
I just love your articles about the German language. I’m a bit of a nerd so I love explanations. Etymology rules! My plan is to learn to speak German well enough so that the nice German people do not answer me in better English when I try and talk to them. Thank you for all your help.
Ha… ambitious goal. Those Germans that do speak English LOVE to “walk it” (use it whenever they feel there’s a chance).
You’ll need good German but also a certain degree of stubborness so you just keep on “germaning” when they reply in English.
I find the remark that you made on “God” quite offensive. As Muslims we describe Allah “God” with the Names and Attributes that befit His Majesty.
Thought you should know.
Thanks for the dissection of this word.
I respect that and I meant no disrespect.
You must know that I am quite an atheist and I come from East Germany which is a vastly atheist region.
When I mention the word God in my articles I am basically referring to the Christian stereotype of God as an old bearded man sitting on a cloud. I don’t think that’s the God most Christians believe in and it’s certainly not Allah, since Muslims as I understand it don’t try to depict God (which actually makes sense). I don’t know about Arabic but the word “god” has a plural in German and English and can be used with an indefinite article (“a”). So by default, the word is not as fixed on one deity but can also refer to “a god of the Romans”.
So please take it as such, and don’t replace it with “Allah” because that wouldn’t reflect how I use the word in the language I am using.
And just to clear this up right away:
I have gotten several complaint emails from Christian reader telling me that I shouldn’t use the word God the way I do and I gave more or less the same answer.
You asked:Salmonellae are a reportable/notifiable disease.
(is this the right word for “have to be reported to the authorities”)
In English I would say, “you are required to report Salmonella to the authorities”. I think that gets at the meaning you want to convey. I’ll be interested to see if the German sentence you provided maps to that meaning.
Well, the meaning does map, but others have pointed out in the comments that “notifiabe/reportable” are the words to go with for British/American. I forgot to remove my question there :)
Thank you do much …. It’s good to be the part of this journey
In the US, the verb “meld” can mean “to declare or announce (a card or combination of cards) for a score in a card game especially by placing face up on the table” (from Merriam-Webster.com). Etymonline says that this meaning is “apparently” from the German word melden. So there probably is an English word related to melden :-)
Oh wow !! There’s no way this is not the same as “melden” :).
Thanks for this connection!!
In Star Trek (nerd alert!) they also have mind-melds where you can basically connect your mind to someone else’s. So that definitely seems to come from melden.
Hmmm… isn’t that from “melting”? That’s how I always understood it :). And I think they do translate it to “verschmelzen” in German.
That’s interesting. I’ve always understood it as a kind of fusion – which would be a blend of the two concepts.
Hi deb glad I got my name back from you so long
BS-Melder! Amazing! Ich muss mich einen kaufen.
Wie sagt man bullshit artist auf Deutsch? Leider bin ich eine/einer davon.
Gute Frage… da fällt mir spontan nichts gutes ein :).
Sorry Emanuel, didn’t mean to be anonymous
You can be anonymous as much as you want :).
What is this
Wie war EUER Date? ehm, did you mean ‘Deiner’ Date? I mean, how many people are in a date ;) ?
Two people of course! “dein” would also work, but people often use plural for the both of them, even if just talking to one. A presumption of coupling, kind of.
Kind of reminds me of Qualityland. I’ve been meaning to read the new one.
I came across a new (to me) form of melden right after I read the article: “waren wohl heute noch ein paar Nachmeldungen (von Corona-Fällen) dabei.”
Since the unicorns came up, can I put in a request for squirrels? I really like the battle going on between them :)
Of course! Unicorns will never stop usurping and squirrels will never stop fighting for freedom!
In Russian, “молитва” also means “prayer”, and “молиться” means to pray. Awesome post!
Danke :)!
Hit them up when they’re in town….don’t think that’s what you mean to say. Hit them up generally means to borrow money.
I think both versions are correct, depending on the context. I say to friends, “hit me up when you’re in town.” But I also hear, “I can’t believe he just hit me up for $500. How’s that for a smooth tie-in to today’s word? ;-)
In der Schule haben wir den Begriff „ledig“ gelernt, für wenn man keinen Freund oder Freundin hat. Sagt man wirklich eher „single“ auf Deutsch?
“ledig” ist offiziell, wenn man NIE verheiratet war. “single” kann man auch sein, wenn man schon drei Ringe hatte :).
“Mollify” may be related. It comes from Latin “mollis” — soft. It might be a stretch, but it is conceivable that one is getting in touch with the gods in order to soften their wrath…
I always look forward to the point in the article where you write, “Cool.” Promise me you’ll never leave it out. :)
Cool
Hello,
Let’s do typos:
“Gods arms and shoulders sure looks in shape” (God‘s arms and shoulders sure look (no s) in shape)
“kind of a niche words” (kind of a niche words)
“parent who basically just want their child” (parent who basically just wants their child)
“friend who just wants you to hit them of” (friend who just wants you to hit them up)
Oh, I’ve just seen that pmccann below has already pointed these out!
“sich melden definitely quite common” (sich melden is definitely quite common)
“make you sounds much more native” (“make you sound (no s) much more native)
“But the ones actually are useful” (But the ones that are actually useful)
And do I detect a typo in German?
“Eilmeldung: Deutsch vereinfacht seine…” (Einmeldung…?)
As for the Salmonella question, and as already pointed out by pmcann, diseases are reported to the authorities, so they are “reportable diseases” (AE); the most current term in BE is “notifiable diseases” (this is actually my area of expertise, I translate a lot of SPCs (summary of product charecteristics) for medicinal products).
That’s it for today, thanks a lot for another great article, I actually hear the phrase “Ich melde mich” lots of times when I watch the German soa… erm… intellectual German TV show about cultural stuff… anyway, people say it all the time, especially when hanging up the phone and promising to give news soon on whatever the subject was, from going out for a drink to signing a business deal (or not).
Bis bald and please bring the Unicorn back (he’s nice and cuddly, which can definitely not be said of a stupid virus who’s turning us all into robots/zombies – not to mention not let me go to the Oktoberfest)!
Ooph, so many typos this time :/. I am not satisfied with myself.
The German word was correct though.
It really is “Eilmeldung”… it’s a “Meldung” that is “in Eile” (in a hurry) if you remember the WotD of a few weeks ago ;). (a little glimpse into how I picked this weeks topic )
Unicorns are coming back soon, I promise. And they’ll be bigger and better and more dangerous than ever. The most incredible unicorn-examples the world has ever seen.
Don’t stress over English singulars and plurals … your issues make all us learners of non-English languages feel so much better !!
Equally it is very very kind of people to offer corrections !!
That said, I never miss what you actually mean !
So maybe it illustrates that grammar is meant to help understanding and taught well it can be useful, but I would miss it if your Germenglish ever became too perfect !!
This site is the best for explaining a language I’ve found anywhere.
Love the explanations, quizzes and comments !!
Noooo, no, no, no, mate, please do be satisfied with yourself!
Your blog is the most helpful and useful resource for German learners (not to mention the wittiest) and a few typos are never going to change that :)
Hey I would like to subscribe to your page and sent you an email as well but haven’t heard back from you
It was weekend. Give me some time :)
Joy joy my life just got better Elisa