Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. And today, we’ll take a detailed look at
arm
aka the processor design that helps run about two thirds of the world’s mobile devices.
#nerd intensifies
Yeah, computer hardware puns are like super models – incredibly sexy, but few people actually get them.
#stand-up comedy intensifies
Seriously though… the word arm is actually quite interesting. Most of us primarily know arm as the thing that attaches the hand to the torso. But a fire arm is not an arm on fire. And then there’s the German arm which means…. poor.
Today, we’ll take a look at how these words connect, see some crazy, unexpected family relation and learn some really cool useful vocabulary and idioms in the process
*teaching intensifies
So let’s jump right in…
Let’s start with the body part arm. The origin of that is the unprecedentedly ancient Indo-European root *ar- which carried the idea of “fitting together”. That’s quite a broad idea actually, and the family tree that grew from that root is pretty impressive. Art, article, arthritis, armor, harmony, order… they all (and more) come from the idea of “fitting together”.
If you want, we can speculate about the logic of those in the comments, but now let’s focus on arm. The arm is called arm because it is fitted together from several parts.
Now you might be like “Wait, so is the leg. Or the spine. That’s kind of random.” and you’re right about that.
Actually, in ancient Greek the word arthros referred to all joints of the body and the Romans used it for the shoulder in particular, while they used the ancestor of branch for the arm. But in the Germanic world the word arm happened to be used for … well… the arm.
But enough with the history… let’s look at some examples.
In German it is der Arm, or die Arme in plural.
- Diese Übung ist gut für die Oberarme und die Unterarme.
- This exercise is good for the upper arms and the forearms.
- Thomas nimmt Maria in den Arm.
- Thomas takes Maria into his arms.
- Die Stadt liegt an einem Seitenarm des Amazonas.
- The city is located on a branch of the Amazonas.
There’s actually also the quite common idiom auf den Arm nehmen.
- Maria nimmt Thomas auf den Arm.
Taken literally, this means that Maria takes Thomas up on her arms, which is very well possible, because she has gotten friggin’ swole ever since she started CrossFit. But jemanden auf den Arm nehmen also expresses the idea of … well.. bullshitting someone. Not in a bad, lying way… more in a kidding way.
- Du hast in drei Wochen Deutsch gelernt? Willst du mich auf den Arm nehmen?
- You learned German in three weeks?! Are you trying to kid me?”
It’s kind of tricky to use it in the right situation so I’d say just keep this idiom on the passive pile.
What you should add to your daily life in German, however, is the verb umarmen. And I mean the word as well as the action, because umarmen, quite frankly, is awesome. Literally it means “to arm around” and you might now be able to guess it… it’s the German word for to hug, to embrace.
- Lass dich mal umarmen.
- Let me give you a hug/come get a hug!
- Ich brauche eine Umarmung.
- I need a hug.
- “Thomas, wer war diese Frau?”
“Äh… niemand.”
“Wieso habt ihr euch dann zum Abschied umarmt?“ - “Thomas, who was that woman?”
“Uh… nobody.”
“Why did you two hug for a good bye then?”
By the way… I just realized that embrace is pretty much literally the same as umarmen. Like… do you remember that I said the Roman languages use their version of branch for the arm? Well… “em+brace“. And if you need a connection between arm and brace/branch, just think of the word bracelet… which kind of should be called armlett.
Anyway, in German besides the verb umarmen, there’s also the noun der Ärmel (die Ärmel in plural) which is the sleeve (piece of clothing where the arm is inside). Not that useful, but there are a couple pretty common idioms with it.
- Thomas krempelt sich die Ärmel hoch.
- Thomas rolls up his sleeves.
- Ich habe ein langärmliges Shirt an.
- I’m wearing a long sleeve shirt. (lit.: “long sleeve-y”)
- Ich habe ein Ass im Ärmel. (a common idiom)
- I have an ace up my sleeve.
- Emanuel hat einen Kater. Unglaublich, was für einen guten Artikel er wieder aus dem Ärmel schüttelt. (another common idiom)
- Emanuel has a hangover. Incredible, what a good article he’s able to knock out.
Cool.
So now we’ve covered the body part arm, but what about the other arm that exists in English? The arm you use to arm yourself. The arm you need armor against. Gee, this is confusing.
But yeah, first of all let me say that, yes, this arm comes from the exact same root as the body part arm. Which kind of makes sense. I mean… our arms were probably the first weapons we used. The actual origin is the Latin word arma, and the core idea was that an arm is something that is fitted together… thing the sword and its handle or the arrow and its head.
Anyway, while German does have some Latin based words like die Armee or die Armada, the word for the actual arm is…. die Waffel. Hmmmm… waffles. So tasty and yet, so destruc.. oh wait, forget that. The German word for arm is die Waffe. Same family as weapon.
- Als ich Kind war, habe ich bei Atomwaffen immer an Waffeln gedacht…. ich hatte Angst und Appetit gleichzeitig.
- When I was a kid, I always thought of waffles when I heard atomic weapons... I was scared and had an appetite at the same time.
(true story, by the way… I grew up in Eastern Germany and in school there was some talk about the west pointing their atomic waffles at us)
- “Bleib weg! Ich bin bewaffnet.”
“Na und? Ich bin ein verf*****s Einhorn, du jämmerliches Stück Sch****” - “Stay back. I am armed.”
“So what? I am a f*****g unicorn, you pathetic piece of sh**”
Man, these unicorns .. they’re bad enough as they are but once they start drinking …. it’s awful.
Anyway, so now we know the body part arm (der Arm) and the weapon arm (die Waffe).
The only thing missing is the German adjective arm. And that can be REALLY confusing to learners if they don’t know that it means poor.
the poor arm
Now, some of you are probably doing some heavy mind bending at the moment to find the connection between the family of arms that we had and the idea of poor. And you can keep searching, but if you don’t find one, don’t worry… because there actually isn’t one. The German adjective arm has NOTHING to do with der Arm.
The origin of the poor-arm is actually not known for sure, but the most likely theory is really really interesting because it says arm is connected to … drumroll please… Arbeit. Can be pretty ironic, if you put the right spin on it.
And it gets even better once you know that Arbeit is related to Erbe, which means inheritance.
Like… inheritance – poverty -work. You can tell a lot of stories with these three words depending on the sequence you put them in.
But what’s the connection, you wonder? The missing link is the English member of the family… the word orphan. An orphan “inherits” from its parents, but back in the dark ages, there rarely was any wealth to be passed on. So becoming an orphan early usually meant a lot of hardship. That’s actually the original meaning of the Germanic Arbeit. And not only in German, do we see such a negative original sense. The Slavic base for work, rabota, which is where robot comes from, once was about servitude, slavery.
So yeah… arm most likely comes from a background of orphan children having to work awfully hard.
Man.. in a normal post this would be a good time for a little joke, but this is actually pretty depressing.
So let’s just look at some examples.
- Die Schere zwischen reich und arm geht auseinander.
- The difference between rich and poor is increasing.
(“the scissors between … is opening”)
- “Ich muss heute das Bad putzen.”
“Du armer.” - “I have to clean the bathroom today.”
“Poor you.”
I guess we should note that arm is usually NOT used as poor in the sense of low quality. The better word there is schlecht.
- This example has poor audio quality.
- Dieses Beispiel hat schlechte Audioqualität.
And last but not least, let’s look at examples for some of the related words like the noun die Armut, which means poverty, the verb verarmen which is about going into poverty, or -arm in compounds where it expresses the idea of low.
- Der ehemalige Millionär ist total verarmt.
- The former millionaire is completely destitute.
- Viele Menschen fliehen vor der Armut in ihrer Heimat.
- Many people flee the poverty in their home country.
- Diese Suppe war einfach armselig.
- This soup was just pathetic.
- Dieser Joghurt ist extrem kalorienarm.
- This Yogurt is extremely low in calories.
- Wenn Thomas Bohnen isst, ist er nicht gerade abgasarm.
- Whenever Thomas eats beans, he is not exactly low-emission.
And that’s it for today. This was our look, or should I say ride, through the meanings and origins or the word arm and I am pretty sure you have forgotten half of it already :).
So if you score 50% in the quiz my really well dressed assistant has prepared for you – then you did pretty well :).
And as always, if you have any questions or suggestions or if you have some more cool idioms with Arm (there are more out there), just leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.
** vocab **
der Arm, die Arme = arm, arms
die Oberarme = the upper arms
die Unterarme = the forearms
jemanden in den Arm nehmen = to take someone into your arms
der Seitenarm = a branch of a river
jemanden auf den Arm nehmen = to kid someone, to bullshit someone
umarmen = to hug, to embrace
die Umarmung = a hug
der Ärmel, die Ärmel = the sleeve
phrase: sich die Ärmel hochkrempeln = to roll up someone’s sleeves
langärmlig = long-sleeved
Idiom: ein Ass im Ärmel haben = to have an ace up your sleeve
etwas aus dem Ärmel schütteln = to whip up, to knock up
die Waffel = waffles
die Waffe = weapon, arm
bewaffnet = armed
arm = poor
die Armut = poverty
verarmen = going into poverty;
verarmt = destitute
armselig = pathetic
kalorienarm = low in calories
abgasarm = low-emission
Thanks for all the help. Your teaching work is motivating, informative and fresh. Seems terrific to me. Thanks again!
Danke für das liebe Feedback :)
Danke für den hilfreichen Überlick zum Wort “arm/Arm”! Eine Frage: Wird die Wendung “sich die Ärmel hochkrempeln” nur buchstäblich verwendet oder auch idiomatisch im Sinne von “sich zur Arbeit bereit machen”? Auf Englisch kommt nämlich der zusammengesetzte Ausdruck “to roll up one’s sleeves and get to work” ziemlich häufig vor. Sagt man auch auf Deutsch “die Ärmel hochkrempeln und sich an die Arbeit machen” oder so was?
Zweite Frage: Kannst du bitte schön einen Word-of-the-day-Eintrag zu “Mut” und den Tausenden von daraus abgeleiteten mut-Wörtern machen, von denen einige männliches und einige weibliches Geschlecht haben, einige beim Adjektiv Umlaut haben und andere nicht, usw.? Danke im Voraus!
Oh, forgot to ask you to pass on my thanks for a really fun/great quiz to your really well-dressed assistant!
Glad to be back! School is over for this semester and I must say, the biggest lesson I learned: nothing is worth missing out on this blog – worked my arme Po to the bone and didn’t do very well at all – get more out of this site than I do out of Uni. Gonna spend the summer catching up on all the blogs I missed during the spring term. Schönen Sommer euch!
Dir auch :)! How long do you have left there? A year?
One if I study full-time, two years if I study half-time, which is what I plan to do. At full-time I was studying 50+ hours a week and it wasn’t enough. At half-time I can study for 40 hours a week and there will be time left over for this site, Easy German and if I need more study time. I don’t know why the university is in such a hurry to get rid of us – seems like German should be three years (undergrad) and not two. Very disappointed, actually, but plan on finishing and then doing online stuff through other Swedish universities, like writing and literature. Need to find some sort of an internship in Hamburg so that I can SPEAK the language for a few weeks straight. Feel ill after all this work and no real progress.
My God, that is INTENSE!!! You study like someone who wants to become a neuro-surgeon or space ship designer or something.
There is a component of German literature and stuff there, right? I mean… it can’t be just plain learning the language ?!?!?!
Yeah, there is a component of German literature. The “professor” conducts literature discussions according to the Henry Ford method: you can voice any opinion of the literature you want, as long as it’s the same as his. (Henry Ford famously said about his cars: You can have any color you want as long as it’s black.)
And as far as speaking, we don’t need to do much of that either – the “professor” only really wants to hear himself speak, so we don’t have to.
I realize now that uni is NOT the best place to learn a language. They are so neurotic about being deemed a “Sprachschule” that they do this quasi-intellectual, bizarrely obtuse academic focus on uninteresting details to avoid teaching the actual language. As though learning German just became a science. Honestly, if I had to take a student loan, I’d drop out, like 98% of my classmates have.
I don’t mind putting in the hours to learn GERMAN, but we’re not doing much of that. Not ONE SINGLE vocabulary list. Instead: learn the rules of der, die, das (no one mentions the 1.742 exceptions, just Learn the Rules!), know the 6 different plural declinations (never mind the 1.543 exceptions) and explain WHY “es” can be used in Swedish sentences and not German ones. Honestly, somebody shoot me. Or them.
I have a new attitude prepared for Fall Semester. And I’m doing high-school German this summer to ACTUALLY LEARN THE LANGUAGE.
Hi,
You’ve used “die Schere” for “the difference” however I can’t find that as a translation in any dictionary. Can you comment a little further on when this can be used like this?
Good question!!
“Schere zwischen arm und reich” is a common idiomatic trope, but outside of that, “Schere” pretty much never means “difference”.
Is there a different way to express that in English other than with “difference”?
Between rich and poor, the split / divide / distance / separation grows every day. The chasm deepens.
I like chasm :)
Cut off point – Schere ? die Trennung
Aber. –
knocked up” nach einer “Vereinigung” (schwanger)
fettig – oily greasy
Ja, das war was ich dachte zu “knocked up”, aber das Wörterbuch hat was anderes gesagt.
Ist “knocked up” NUR “schwanger”?
Zu “knocked up” kenne ich tatsächlich nur “schwanger.” In deinem Beispiel sollte es “whip up” oder “knock OUT” heißen: “Incredible what a good article he was able to knock out!” Und hier passt “knock out” eigentlich besser als “whipped up,” denn dieses hat normalerweise nur mit Essen zu tun: “She can whip up a meal / a batch of cookies in no time!” (to whip = schlagen, wie z.B. Sahne schlagen, “to whip cream,” Schlagsahne, “whipped cream,” usw.). “To whip up an article” kommt mir ziemlich unidiomatisch vor. Man sagt übrigens auch “to churn out,” besonders wenn es darum geht, ein Ding oder Erzeugnis eines nach dem anderen in rascher Folge auszustoßen: “Incredible how he just churns out one book/article after another!”
Churn out an article. – oder sonst etwas mehmals MIT für Schweiß und wenig Geist .
abschätzend
Es stammt von der Buttererzeugung.
MIT viel S–
I feel the most similar idiom in English would be to “pull out of his sleeve”. Magician-like. Which sounds more impressive than “knocked out”. “Whipped up” could be used idiomatically (since as you mention it’s not food he’s producing). Basically, to me, “knocked out” is by far the best for a hangover-inspired article, but the magician one I haven’t seen mentioned in the comments so I thought I’d mention it (although it is more suitable for an “Emanuel pulled the solution for climate change out of his sleeve, narrowly saving the Queen from the impeding tidal wave” kind of situation.) “Churn out” requires Emanuel repeatedly writing articles with hangovers – which he might well do. Thinking about it while writing the comment, the “ace” forms a subset of things that can be idiomatically pulled out of sleeves.
Hahaha… no, I can’t write that well when I am hungover :).
How do you know about the climate change project I am working on, though. It was supposed to be a surprise :D
“The gap between rich and poor” is, to me, the most common and most idiomatic sounding way to express this.
Gap is common – The gap between rich and poor increases with every Amazon transaction.
Nice example :). Jeff Bezos is crazy, I think
“jemanden auf den Arm nehmen” seems to mean the same as the English “to pull someone’s leg”
I think the American equivalent would be “taking someone for a ride”
I think both sound close, although “taking someone for a ride” to me sounds like it at least could be more serious – you could say someone was “taken for a ride” if they got cheated out of serious money, couldn’t you? “Pulling someone’s leg” is way more harmless and, I’d say, momentary.
“Auf den Arm nehmen” is definitely temporary and not for serious scams.
There is no canal between England and France. (A canal is manmade, whereas the English Channel is natural.)
Oh wow, I didn’t know there was a distinction… thanks :)
Hallooooo,
Typos first:
“the worlds mobile devices” (the world’s)
One in German (whoo-hoo) “Wieso habt ihr euch dann zum Abschied umarmt.” (only a poor question mark missing, but still… bragging a bit, I suppose!!)
“there was a some talk” (there was some talk)
Now two questions:
“Thomas nimmt Maria in den Arm” – is to take into someone’s arms used with singular in German? And how do you say arm in arm?
“Ich muss heute das Bad putzen.”
“Du armer.” Is nominative used here, meaning a man is cleaning the bathroom and would it be “Du arme” if it were a woman?
Bis bald!
Good questions!!
Indeed, “take into one’s arms” works in both singular and plural in German. I think for plural, you’d use a possessive though
– Thomas nimmt Maria in den Arm.
– Thomas nimmt Maria in die Arme.
I feel like “in den Arm” is more idiomatic.
But then there’s “in die Arme schließen”, for instance after a long time apart. That one only works with plural.
“arm in arm” is verbatim in German “Arm in Arm”
“du Armer”… yes, that is Nominative because it is kind of short for “du bist ein Armer”. So yeah, for a woman it would be “die Arme”
shouldn’t the second example be: “Thomas bringt Maris in den Armen”?
Nope, “in den Arm/in die Arme nehmen” is the idiomatic phrasing.
Just to point out that in English gym slang, “guns” refer to arms – Like, “That dude has guns like Arnie.”
Do I have to have a certain amount of biceps, though, or can also skinny arms be called guns :)?
What is the opposite of fettarm? Fettreich is marked X as a mistake, but no other option is marked correct. Seems like a bug :) What is the correct answer though?
That would have to be “fettvoll”, I imagine. (The other two are joke answers!) I also guessed “fettreich”, much to the detriment of my score.
ps Emanuel: “what a good article he’s able to whip up/knock up with” should lose the trailing “with” in both cases.
I answered fettvoll and it was marked wrong as well…
It should be a detriment to MY score. “fettreich” is correct but I forgot to mark it as such.
Thanks for the correction. I had “come up with” first and then changed the wording.
fettvoll ist kein Word dict.cc. fettreich is a word meaning ‘high-fat’ or ‘fat-rich’. Just a bug in the quiz tool
Yup, forgot to mark “fettreich” as correct. Sorry everyone!!!
It’s “fettreich”… we forgot to mark that one as correct. Sorry for all the confusion!!