Hi you German-learning gladiators,
day 22 of our Advent calendar. It’s winter in the north. The days are cold and dark. And after a long day of building amazing cars and being demure, what are Germans looking forward to?
Exactly. Eating potatoes.
And then cuddling in front of the TV.
Yes, unlike laughing, cuddling is something Germans actually do. And the German word for to cuddle is
kuscheln
- Maria will kuscheln.
- Maria wants to cuddle.
And I have to say… I really like the sound of it. Kuscheln. Like a really soft, cuddly pillow :).
All the more surprising that its origins are a command for high class hunting dogs. There was a time when they were trained in French and “Kusch! ” is the germanized version of French “Couche!” – the command to lie down.
Kuscheln is based on the French verb coucher, which means to lie down, and the reason it was imported was as a command for royal hunting dogs, which at the time were often trained in French. In fact, Kusch! is still in use as a somewhat vague command for dogs to go away and the verb kuschen is used to express the idea of shying away from something, not standing up to someone.
- Maria und Thomas kuscheln.
- Maria and Thomas are cuddling.
- Thomas kuschelt sich in seinen neuen Bademantel.
- Thomas snuggles into his bathrobe.
- “Crazy news: Maria ist gestern mit dem neuen aus der IT nach Hause gegangen.”
“Ja, aber sie haben nur gekuschelt, sagt sie.” - “Maria went home with the new guy from the IT department yesterday.”
“Yeah, but they only cuddled, she says.”
- Die Decke ist super kuschelig.
- The blanket is super soft and cuddly.
Now, so far so good, but all this you could have found in dictionaries.
But I have a few really cool, colloquial Kuschel-words for you, that’ll make you sound super German. If you have a German partner or German friends or German co-workers or a German Skype teacher or a German shephard… try one out. They’ll be really impressed. Well, except the shephard maybe :)
- Der Bademantel hat einen hohen Kuschelfaktor.
- The bathrobe has a high snuggle factor.
- Oxytocin wird auch Kuschelhormon genannt.
- Oxytocin is also called “cuddle hormone“.
(It really is, even in newspapers)
- Schatz, ich leide an Kuscheldefizitsyndrom.
- Honey, I suffer from cuddle deficiency syndrome.
- Schatz, ich bin unterkuschelt.
- Honey, I’m “under cuddled”.
And there are many more like Kuschelalarm. Or Wiedergutmachkuscheln :).
So… this was kuscheln, the German word for to cuddle and an absolute must have… and must do.
If you have questions or opinions or you want to try out some made up kuschel-words or you want to send a kuschel-request out to the German learning community, just leave me a comment and maybe win today’s awesome (little) giveaway.
Have a great kuschel-laden day and bis morgen.
I’d said ‘…. Maria war gestern….’ instead of ‘…. Maria ist gestern….’
When can one use such a construction, present tense with a time adv. to indicate past?
It actually is spoken past. The full verbal phrase is “ist …. (nach Hause) gegangen.”
Does that help?
Sorry, of course. Thank you
Hallo, I am noticing on most of your posts its always “Thomas and Maria”…….just an observation….. are they based on real people you know? ;-)
Yes, no, who knows ;)
Searching a mammal species + kuscheln, or “Tiere kuscheln”, in Google images gets some very kuschelig results.
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…. so süß :).
This one is the best:
how about this? http://www.cbsnews.com/news/orphaned-baby-kangaroo-hugs-teddy-bear-like-a-human/
Absolutely disgusting!!
Nah kidding :). Almost too cute to be true.
Da es “unterkuschelt” und nicht “untergekuschelt” ist, heißt das, dass man “meine Frau unterkuschelt mich” und nicht “meine Frau kuschelt mich unter” sagt? ;-)
Was ist der Unterschied zwischen kuscheln und schmusen?
Naja, rein technisch ist dein Satz richtig. “unterkuscheln” ist nicht trennbar. “Unter” und “kuscheln” wollen kuscheln.
“unterkuscheln” wird aber quasi nur in der ge-Form verwendet.
“schmusen” ist sehr ähnlich und oft werden die Wörter synonym verwendet. Aber für mich ist “schmusen” ein bisschen mehr auf den Kopf und das Gesicht konzentriert. Und es sind fast immer 2 Leute beteiligt. Oder Tiere. Aber mit Gegenständen schmusen klingt für mich ein kleines bisschen seltsam.
Im (amerikanischen) Englischen gibt es “to schmooze”. Da schlägt LEO “schmeicheln” oder “Honig um den Bart/ums Maul schmieren” vor, wobei für mich “schmoozing” etwas allgemeiner “versuchen, einen guten Eindruck zu machen” bedeutet. Selbstverständlich kann dabei von Einschleimen die Rede sein. :) Wahrscheinlich noch ein über Yiddish importierter Germanismus…
Übrigens, vielleicht passt “nuzzle” als Übersetzung für “schmusen”?
No, not really – nuzzle is as shorter process – as in, the dog nuzzled up to his owner, as in digging his nose into; schmusen is more like making out
Ah, smooching :)
I don’t think “nuzzling” has to be a one-off, short act, though. To me it’s pretty much face-cuddling. I guess I just wondered how kissy “schmusen” really is – we have a German baby book with animal pictures that have patches of fur etc. for kids to touch and feel, and I’m fairly sure it describes a kitten or puppy’s fur as “schmuseweich.”
Ich hab noch nie von “nuzzle” gehört. Google image search looks good though. Maybe “nuzzle” is a bit more toward smelling the other one, which is probably how “schmusen” as an act evolved.
Ups, ich bringe die Sprachen durcheinander.
So machen wir alle sometimes…
Ein bisschen?? Mit Gegenstaenden schmusen waere mehr als seltsam :-)
Ich war so vorsichtig mit meiner Aussage wegen der “Schmusedecke”bei Snoopy.
Würdest du zustimmen, dass “schmusen” kopffixiert ist?
I don’t think there is such a word as “unterkuscheln” in the official German dictionary
Of course not :)
Don’t forget “das Kuscheltier” the general term for plush animals in German. Mine was a hedgehog, which reminds me of an old joke. “How do hedgehogs cuddle/reproduce?” – “Very carefully.”
Oh wow, how could I forget. I think mine was a teddy. And a little devil (yeah, East Germany)
Don’t forget that here in the uk we now have a brand of toilet paper called cushel, which i took to be the englified literal translation of Kuschel. “Kuscheln sie sich mit cushel” tm of ubungmachtdenmeister.
How fitting. I tried to see if there are any toilet paper brands that actually use “kuschelweich” but I couldn’t find any.
What I found is much dumber:
XXL-Verwöhnpack… WTF?!?!
And then there’s this:
Boy, in this day and age, with the world being all uncertain, I’ am SO glad my toilet paper is safe.
Any visitor to wales will find T-shirts and slate placards with the claim “anyone can cuddle, but only the welsh can cwtch”. Now it seems that germans can also kutsch.
Wait, what? Is that really a word? How on earth do you pronounce that??
It’s pronounced kinda like kooch. Sounds a bit like baby talk, when they used to say kootchie-koo. It looks like kvetch though, which is whining and moaning. It’s like a cuddly hug with someone you feel safe with.