Hello everyone,
and welcome to or German Word of the Day. This time we will look the meaning of the word:
der Faulpelz. That kitten in the hammock is one, I am one when I have a day off and you sure are one as well every now and then…
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I’ve recently come across “verbummeln”. What is your sense of this word? From what I could gather, it’s more derogatory and implies wasting time (in a sense of “die Zeit verschwenden”).
Yeah, passing time by being sluggish is one of its two meanings.
I have made an entry for it in my dictionary now:
https://yourdailygerman.com/meaning/verbummeln/
It’s not that derogatory, but it’s not super positive of course.
English speakers can think of Pelz in Faulpelz as lazy-pelt (a pelt is a furry/wooly animal skin).
Ja, ja Thomas is manchmal schon ein bisschen ein Faulpelz. – can you explain me why there are two “ein”-s? Or is it in a lesson I have not yet read?
There’s no lesson on this n particular :).
“ein bisschen” is a phrase meaning “a little” and “ein Faulpelz” is the equivalent to “a lazy person”.
In English, you’d throw an “of” in between…
– a little bit of a lazy person
… but in German you don’t need that.
Hope that helps :)
Here are some more English lazy- formations for you. “Lazybones” might be close to Faulpelz. It can range from friendly to derisive. “You are such a lazybones today.” (Could be good). “Get up, you lazybones!” (Certainly bad). A “Lazy Susan” is a spinning tray in the middle of a table to make it easier to share dishes. “Lazy Acres” is some kind of restful place where nobody has to work too hard. (Think of a campground or RV park – It’s not a loud party place, but not a graveyard, either) . La-Z-Boy is an American manufacturer of reclining chairs where you pull the handle (or push a button) and a footrest comes out, you put your feet up, are lazy and watch TV.
Oh wow, “Lazy Susan” is completely new to me :D. Any idea where this name comes from? Thanks for these, they’re great!!
Surely, Susan was thought to be the name of the maid who would be serving the food on the Lazy Susan if it were not conveniently put onto the twiddly thing for the convenience of the eaters.
The influence that German has had on (my native) Czech never ceases to amaze me – and it makes learning German so much fun :D
There are two different words for “lazy” in Czech. One simply means “lazy”, but the other means “rotten” and is used for “lazy” in informal speech. It sounds totally different from “faul”, it’s only the concept that when you’re lazy you’re rotten, that stuck.
Your comparison between Pelz and Fell left me confused with Fels.
It would have been awesome if it meant lazy rock! Not as awesome as Faultier though! :-)
Thanks again!
I don’t know if this is popular or not, as I do not hear it often, but I have heard the word “lazypants” used to call somebody lazy in a nicer way, usually as a noun of address. “Come on, lazypants!” . It certainly sounds juvenile and is a little like, “Liar, liar, pants on fire!”, but it could also be kind of cute. “It looks like lazypants hasn’t done the dishes today.” There may be something to pairing “lazy” with some kind of clothing like “Pelz” or “pants”.
Brilliant :) Thank you
My favourite German word :)