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Out of curiosity (and regarding another Unwort of the year), why is it “der Lockdown”? What’s the presumptive German equivalent that gives that Anglicism its gender?
I can’t remember if you mentioned it in the intro post about Unwort, but there’s also Unding, which I hear every now and again (somehow more often in 2020…).
Wow, good question.
It being “der” feels so incredibly natural to me, that I can’t imagine it being anything else. But I can’t think of why that is. Maybe because of the “der Schluss”-family.
Or because the villain in Transformers 4 was called “Lockdown” (that might just be me though).
Seriously… it’s a really interesting question to ask an editor in the newspapers… why did you go with “der” back in spring.
Do you feel the same way about “Countdown”? Dict.cc has that one marked as masculine and rarely neuter.
1000% masculine in my “feeling”.
Actually, THAT might be the reason why it’s der Lockdown. Because “down”-ending is associated with “der” already.
I noticed watching American Football in Germany that it is das Down, but der Touchdown. Ich habe die Logik nie hinterfragt…
Haha, stimmt, ist mir nie aufgefallen.
Also “das Football” macht Sinn als Untergruppe für “das Spiel”. Viele Spielenamen sind mit “das” (das Monopoly, das Schach, das Mensch-Ärger-Dich-Nicht,…).
Und “der Football” ist der Ball selber.
“der Touchdown” … da könnte ich mir vorstellen, dass es ein bisschen wie “der Versprecher” oder “der Fehler” ist…. “der Runterleger”. Und für “das Down”… keine Ahnung. Vielleicht von “das Tief”, aber das ist wilde Spekulation.
Ooh! Ooh! I just remembered some English words related to ‘schwurbeln’ – and they’re almost as fun to say, too! A person who talks foolishly at length, with emphasis on ‘length,’ is a ‘blatherskite.’ Yes, you can ‘blather (on)’ as well, so that might be a good definition of ‘schwurbeln’. Then there’s ‘bafflegab,’ usually applied to politicians and lawyers, confusing or unintelligible jargon.
blatherskite is kind of hard to say for me. I mean, I can do it, but it’s effort. “bafflegab” is easy, of course, but that sounds too British for my American English sprachgefühl :)
Great blog. Unfortunately in the UK the effects of the pandemic are going to be made worse by our blind-folded walk into a very murky and entirely self inflicted economic disaster. There is a word for this phenomenon, but it was coined about 4-5 years ago, so isn’t eligible this year. Btw, thanks for yesterday’s quiz.
I think it’ll turn out okay in the end. At least then there is no one to blame but Britain itself. That can be very helpful.
Bei “Maskenmuffel” bin ich mir nicht so sicher ob es zum Wort oder Unwort des Jahres gekürt werden sollte… Querdenker oder Jana aus Kassel vielleicht… :-)
Woher kennst du denn Jana aus Kassel? Is die so fame?! Schrecklich :).
I love Schlafschaf! The term reminds me of this delightful image from a favorite children’s book, written and illustrated by professor, friend and inspiration M. Paula Survilla: https://www.knitbaahpurl.com/store/p11/Over_the_Moon%2C_a_sheep%27s_tale.html
You might check out the knitbaahpurl website–I think you would enjoy the humor of her work.
Bis Morgen!
false positive does that mean lying is truthful??
Ah Emanuel! You have beautifully described my frustration with the misuse of and ‘ruining’ of some words and symbols. Words and correct meanings are very important to me but, like many people with Aspergers and OCD, I am not quick and witty with my speaking. I’ve begun to detest some ( formerly good) words because of the mean associations they have taken on.
Hallo lieber Emanuel,
Hier in Frankreich, gibt’s ein par Unding Wörter zum Beispiel: Blabla, Charabia, Nonsense, sottise, langue de Bois,……. etc.
Selbstverständlich gibt’s Solche Wörter, in verschiedene Branche oder Umstände darum man ein Fachsprache benützt. Aber Umgangsprachlisch, höre ich öfters, solches Undinge, übertriebenerweise bei
Journalisten *innen/ Moderatoren*innen in Rundfunk oder im Fersehen oder Politikern .
Ich möchte dir erzählen ein Beispiel habe ich bei Kulture Radio gehört. In einer Kinosendung ( Über Kino), der Moderator in letze Woche, benutze den Verb Storyboarder . Dieses kommt natürlich aus Englische und gibt’s nicht ens Fransosiche. Der Klang selbst verletzt mein Ohr !
Oder habe schon einmal in Fernsehen, ein Politiker/ Minister gehört , der über ein ” Technologie de Rupure” Sprachte.
Sehr enthusiast ( rapturous sogar ) . Er wolle von einer innovativen ,neuen Technik sprechen . Was komisch aussieht, ist das Wort Rupture gibt ins Fransosiche. Aber sie sind die falsche Freunde . MONSIEUR
Minister wollte sagen dass er ein Besserwisser ist !
Bis bald dir zu hören mit Enthusiasmus !
Im voraus vielen vielen dank .
Oh, Frankreich und Anglizismes sind wie Katze und Hund, ein bisschen :). Deutsch nimmt ALLES was es kriegen kann, wie ein echter Fan-Boy :D
Liebe Grüße und einen schönen Tag dir!
My favourite Unwort is hamsterkaufer or panic hoarder. Their favourite activity is collecting toilet paper.
Yes, I love that word hamsterkaufer!
Oh ja, das hab’ ich total vergessen.
I love the word Schwurbeln! It sounds like a portmanteau between “swear” and “burble.” But the meaning is genius. Back in the day (since I’m old) it was called “Quality Bullshit”… like when you had to write a paper in college and it was due the next day and had to be ten pages, and you just had to pad it with a lot of meaningless verbiage and repetition so it would be long enough.
Quality bullshit… I like that :)
Hi Emanuel,
I’m really enjoying the Advent calendar articles – thanks! My German teacher was telling me about the Unwort tradition a couple of weeks back and asked me to have a go at making some new German words up – notwithstanding the fact that she knows I have enough problems remembering the ones currently in circulation…
My favourite invention was:
kassettenverblüfft sein
which I decided was a verb to describe a younger generation’s inability to work with formerly commonplace (but now outdated) technology.
I think I’m going to adopt Schlafschaf and Schwurbeln though – particularly Schwurbeln: it sounds like a burbled stream of shady verbiage.
AWESOME!!!! You really left this one wide open for me to express my true feeling on what, I or I feel about this BS 2020… Yes it sucks, when people pass away. But come on, everything a person does from, weather it’s from a heart attack, car accident, broken toe nail, etc. It’s all, covid-19 related. I’m sick and tired of the politics and main stream media, putting fear, into everyone.. Mankind, got thru the flu pandemic back in the 1920’s, look how that turned out. So there’s my rant for 2020.
Tim
I personally don’t feel fear. I feel like at least in Germany, we’re rich enough a country to PAY for this shit (the closures and so on) and not have our medical staff have to work in war like conditions and having to send sick people back home. That is AWFUL. Getting your business shut is also AWFUL, but there, we can mitigate the consequences with … money. We can’t mitigate someone suffering at home when they should be in a hospital. I’m okay with paying higher taxes for this.
I do agree that the media is hyperventallating over the topic but no one HAS to read or watch it, after all. People LOVE “shocking news”, so who’s to blame here? The media? Many people in the US say shutting down businesses is “communism” (it’s not, it’s authoritarian), and at the same time they complain about MSM not doing their job, not realizing that in Hyper-Capitalism their sole job is to make money. They do that by spreading fear, either way (Covid fear or communism fear).
I do agree about the weird counting system. Like… someon having Covid and dying in a car crash being chalked up to Covid. That makes NO SENSE. However, I do believe that it’s a glitch of some regulations that regulate how to mark death from “Thrombosis induced by Covid” (to give one example). And I don’t think it is even close to being significant in terms of numbers.
Yes, mankind will make it through this, no doubt. The question is how. I’d rather make a joint effort as a country than saying “Each on their own”, but that’s really just an opinion.
oh man… I hope this doesn’t escalte in this comment section :)
It’s so much easier to join the group-think. It gives one a sense of esteem (ref. Maslow) to be as smart as the majority. So let’s come up with a perjorative term that quickly shrouds the dessenter as ignorant or just recalcitrant. That will shut him up.
Whatever happened to ‘critical thinking’ ? Vielleicht, ist hinterfragen es?
If the arguement has no merits than criticize that, not the individual. (Although the later is much easier.) Else, you may find yourself on the wrong side next time and no one will then care to hear your thoughts.
Let’s get away from type-casting everyone we disagree with and stop using these terms completely.
I think ‘Tyrannical Action’ is a better characterization of the current shutdown. There is no cost/benefit analysis, no input from the people’s representatives, just do as I say and all must obey. I prefer to appeal to the intelligence of the people, give them the best understanding of the issue and then let them act upon it.
Do you really think that the US or Germany will really compensate the loss to a small business entrepenuer? I don’t, 10,000 have already closed in the US.
The first paragraph absolutely cuts both ways. The people who “hinterfragen” also engage in group think. Only that their group is an elite group that is “in the know” while all the normies are brainwashed by TV.
I personally was attacked for not “hinterfragen” by people who have NO IDEA how much hinterfragen I do. They just think I don’t do any because I don’t arrive at the same conclusions as they do.
And they’re very vocal about calling people with my opinions and view “sheep” and such. So yeah… the first paragraph goes both ways.
I do agree that not labeling each other and calling each other names would be the best way!
As for the tyrannical action… the government are elected by the people, so there IS people’s representatives involved in the decisions.
Appealing to intelligence of the people… well, yeah, that’d be nice. But looking around in Berlin, how people behave, we do need official restrictions. Otherwise everyone just does as they want.
As for shutdowns… the country has to pay for all of it. No doubt about that. I am hoping that Germany does a good job about that, even though there are of course hickkups. I’d rather not talk about the States because I don’t live there and also I think it varies greatly from State to State.
All that said… I don’t know how I would feel if I had to stay at home like people in Spain or Italy for two months. That’d be a really tough sell for the Government here. I honestly don’t get how Spain is so seemingly calm.
I totally agree with your assessment of the media. Yes, the topic could easily escalate, but let me only comment that the counting is pretty reasonable. In fact, the so-called access mortality (above the normal, historical mortality, which is very stable) in the US is so far significantly higher than the numbers officially assigned to COVID.
If we look at how the 1918 flu pandemic turned out, the mainstream estimate is that 50 million died. One of those was my great grandmother who succumbed to it in a remote Irish farming community on the evening she had given birth to my grandmother. This event understandably blighted my grandmother’s whole life, fantastic woman though she was. Let’s try and do better this time, now that we have the means to do so.
Hi Enmanuel!
I liked your article.
It shows that you’re into the group of people that really attended your classes on “critical thinking”. Unfortunately, there are a bunch of people who spare their time spreading the most chaotic and irrational ideas in every available language.
If I have to select an “Unwort”, it would be “Social distance”. Not the “physical distance” required to stay clear from infection, but the real “Social distance” that we experience every day.
Fear is the basic emotion that appears when human beings feel threatened. And the actual answers to this pandemic are the same as they were a hundred years ago, the only difference is that now we have technology.
Regards,
Thank you for bringing up the “social” versus “physical” distance distinction. It really bugs me. “Social distance” is a legitimate expression, but it is a purely psychological term and does not convey the message that science/medicine is trying to send us about Abstand halten.
Never thought about this but it’s actually a really great point. It absolutely SHOULD be called “physical distancing”, what we’re doing with the 6 feet and such. Nothing to do with social.
Social media, after all, has nothing to do with being physically close.
Great article! And now I know the German word for sheeple = Schlafschaf.
I’m not sure we have a word for Schwurbeln. It sounds like a Gish Gallop but that’s not a phrase in everyday use.
Also I’m not sure we have a word for hinterfragen. I think you’re more likely to see something like “wake up, sheeple!” but luckily I’ve been managing to avoid the nutters online almost entirely, so I’m happily ignorant about what they’re saying.
By the way, is it possible to make it so you can follow replies to a comment after you’ve posted it? When you post something and then realise didn’t click to follow, it’s too late.
Oh, great, and I learned “Schlafschaf” in English now :). “Sheeple”… took me a while to realize that it’s a play on “people” and I have to say… it’s actually really funny. English, you did it again :)!!
As for “schwurbeln”… that really came out of nowhere. “hinterfragen” was always mainstream, but “schwurbeln” is new.
Going by the cartoon, “gish gallop” is MUCH more elegant than “schwurbeln” :)
But “schwurbeln” is so much more fun to say!!
I have to say, I like both schlafschaf and sheeple. Good words that roll off the tongue nicely.
I have never heard of Gish Gallop. Thanks for the new phrase!
I can’t think of an equivalent verb for “schwurbeln” either, but Schwerbler translates pretty well as “truther” and is pretty mainstream—you see the “anti-vaxx truthers” or “climate truthers” everywhere, always layered with plenty of sarcasm
Even when I check that I want to follow replies to my comment, it does not work for me. I do get a confirmation from the system, but then when someone comments, I do not get any notification.
Hmm, that’s strange. Are you logged in with your email?
Actually, I think there is an option at the top of a thread to “follow thread”. But then you’d get notified about ALL comments, not just replies to yours. That could be a lot of notifications :)
I didn’t see that, and for some threads that would be useful! Thank you!
So many Schwurbler on Twitter still insisting Trump won the election and that he still could. The word they use instead of hinterfragen is “research”. They have done lots (Youtube videos and alt right “news” media) and you/we have done none, so they say. It’s exactly the same for the covidiots.
One of our most famous Schlagersänger (The Wendler) who was bound to co-host the counterpart of “Germany’s got Talent”, now sits in Florida and informs his fans (and haters) via his telegram channel about the truth.
He also drops some info on Insta from time to time one of them being that Trump is close to winning and also that there wer Chinese soldiers at the border with Canada and a secret military blow killing 50.000 of them prevented an invasion.
He was FAMOUS and so was his 30 year younger Influencer girl-wife. The force of the Schwurbel is incredibly strong!
Oh and while we’re at it… a super star vegan cook who built a considerable business with books and food items now asks for Trump and Putin to give Germany a peace treaty and Merkel and gates want to kill 7 billion people.
Do you have similar celebrities in Britain?
We are witnessing a recent phenomenon where D-list celebrities disgrace themselves with reactionary views in public, are then “cancelled” and then relaunch themselves as the latest darling of the English ethno-nationalist/covid denial movement. The latest of these is Laurence Fox (son of the actor James Fox) who was previously famous only for playing the character of a classically-educated sidekick-of-a-sidekick in a TV detective show (“Lewis”). Following his cancellation for telling a woman of mixed race on live TV that she was the one racially oppressing him, he has dedicated his life to stirring up pointless controversy on Twitter. I understand there can be money in this.