Yourdailyf-ingerman Assvent Cucklander
“I swear, honey!”
♥♥^♥♥^♥♥+♥♥♥
Hello everyone,
happy 4th Advent and welcome back to our Advent Calendar.
And behind this door is the German word for something that’s part of the later stages of many a Christmas dinner.
Because at some point, the conversation will pivot toward … politics. Or the ‘rona. Or someone’s life choices. Or just some old baggage from last year. Things get heated quickly (and I don’t mean the food) and especially if alcohol is involved, it is only a matter of time till someone starts with what we’ll look at today:
fluchen
And I think you might have guessed it.
fluchen means to curse.
The origin of fluchen is the pathetically ancient Indo-European root *plāg-. The very core of that root was actually beating, a meaning that is still alive for instance in the word plectrum – the thing you “beat” the strings of your guitar with.
But very early on, the root took on the sense of crying, lamenting. Which doesn’t seem connected at all, until you think of this dramatic movie lamenting where people pound their fists against the wall or their chest.
That’s where the meaning came from, and it’s the origin of а Slavic stem for crying (like тхе Bulgarian плача for example), and of the Latin plangere, which we find in the Romance languages as to cry and which is also the base of the English to complain.
And that’s also where German fluchen is from. Sure, it is a bit on the “angrier” side, as Yoda would say “Anger of expression an grief is.”
Wait… is that right? Anyway, you get the idea.
Now, since we’re talking origin, let’s also look at the English side real quick, because that’s also quite interesting. It’s not entirely sure where the verb to curse comes from, but one theory connects it to course and the Latin verb cursus and it might have started have started from the idea of saying a set of daily liturgical prayers. And especially in Italian, cursing does involve a LOT of religious words, so that would make a lot of sense.
Jesus Christ, can we NOT argue at Christmas dinner for once?!
I mean… the only difference really between this being cursing and this being a prayer is tone.
And the other word, swearing – well, that’s a weird one as well.
“Honey, swear you’ll never leave me!”
“Okay… I’ll never f***in leave you, for f***’s sake.”
I mean… we really only know what it means from context.
The connection here is probably the use of sacred names while actually swearing something, and then, as the names got used for cursing, the verb to swear took on that meaning as well.
Anyway, time to get back to modern day German.
And today, fluchen generally means to curse in the sense of throwing around swear words.
- “Why are you swearing?”
“My pancakes are burned again.” - “Warum fluchst du denn?”
“Meine Pfannkuchen sind schon wieder verbrannt.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Mein Uberfahrer hat die ganze Zeit geflucht.
- My uberdriver was cursing, swearing the entire time.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The noun der Fluch, however, is a bit different, because its main meaning is the curse in the more “witchy” sense. Like, what the evil queen did to Snow White in Disney’s famous movie… Lion King.
- Geld kann ein Fluch und ein Segen sein.
- Money can be a curse and a blessing.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And the verb for this type of cursing is verfluchen.
- Ich verfluche dich!
- I curse you!
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- “Ich.. ich glaube die Katze ist verflucht.”
“Nee, ich habe ihr nur Kaffee ins Essen gemischt.” - “I… I think the cat is cursed.”
“Nah, I just mixed coffee into its food.” - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And speaking of verflucht – that can also be used as a colloquial intensifier.
- Wow, das ist verflucht lecker.
- Wow, that is damn tasty.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Not very common, but you could give it a try at Christmas dinner… you know… makes for a nice foreshadowing for later when you talk about vaccine mandates and fun stuff :).
And I think that’s it for today.
If you have any questions or suggestions about fluchen just leave me a comment.
Have a great day and I’ll see you tomorrow.
verflixt = means: damn, blast, darn …”curses!” ?
I came across:-
“entstellt aus verflucht” = means: “inflict curse”
Thanks for your help.
“verflixt” is a variation of “verflucht”, created to have a “less strong” option. A bit like “gosh” instead of “God”.
I think “damn” is the best match.
“enstellt aus verflucht”
This phrase makes no sense to me. Where did you see this?
yeh, lost in the mists of time! I’ll delete it, sorry to bother you with it, thanks for your other info in your reply. Cheers.
“And especially in Italian, cursing does involve a LOT of religious words, so that would make a lot of sense”
As an Italian guy have to comment on this :D
While you can hear such kind of cursing everywhere in Italy, it is more common only in few special regions… where some people use it as Interpunktion :D
I come from one of these regions, BTW
“where some people use it as Interpunktion :D”
That made me laugh :).
It’s the perfect description also for the incessant “f*ck” in some corners of English.
Which region are you from, btw? I’ve been around quite a bit in Italy, so maybe I know it…
I come from Friuli-Venezia Giulia. Now I live and work in Kärnten and sometimes I use these curse words also in office, taking for granted that no one understands them… but some of my Austrian colleagues, when they are pissed off, they say something in German and throw in also some of these religious curse expressions for good measure :D
I feel a bit bad :D
Das Artikel war sehr interessant.
Super. Vielen Dank
In what type of situations would it be acceptable to use verflucht as an intensifier? Is it strong like swearing or is it something kids would say?
I think people tend to use it for more “serious” situations, like a near accident is “verflucht knapp”. But you can also hear “verfucht lecker” from time to time. Still, it’s a bit too refined a vocabulary choice for kids.
Thanks! Btw, I always subscribe after I have posted a comment but i never get an email when you reply, only when other readers post comments. So when i come to read their comments then i check if you have also replied but it’s awkward because your replies are really the main thing i want to know about ^^
Das Einhorn brachte das Eichhörnchen zum Fluchen. Indem er sich auf den Kopf scheißet. Es schoss das Einhorn mit einer Haselnuss. Und schwor, ihn zurückzubekommen.
Ja, das ist typisch Einhorn… immer auf die kleinen :).
Ich glaube du meinst “indem er ihm[dem Eichhörnchen]auf den Kopf scheißt”. “sich” heißt, das Einhorn “shits on itself”
“ihn zurückzubekommen”… meinst du damit “to come back at him”?
Yes, we say, ‘get him back’.
I quite like the notion of a unicorn shitting on its own head. That would be athletic!
Are fluchen and flüchten related?
Have you considered having an auction where the winner gets to choose the adverb describing how ancient a word’s root is?
If I swear/curse at someone, is that jdn anfluchen? Hmm, I guess dict.cc says that doesn’t exist. Beschimpfen?
“anfluchen” actually works for me, though it’s not something people use often. “beschimpfen” is more about insults, so it doesn’t necessarily fit.
As for “flüchten”… there most likely is no connection, as “flüchten” belongs to the family of “fliegen/fly”.
I didn’t fully understand your auction idea :)
Just checked and you can find instances for “anfluchen” in text, albeit it few.
Cool, thanks. By auction, I meant something like a kickstarter, where say for $500 one can decide that “überraschen” comes from the *barbarically* ancient root …
Or fluchen comes from the *accursedly* ancient root…
Ohhh, now I get it :).
You could even own it as an NFT!
“Mint you own Indo-European root and give its Ancientness one of thousands of qualities from the Thesaurus”
We’ll all get rich!!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart guys for sponsoring me ;D
Toll! Danke!
Es ist ja ein verfluchter Artikel! (wie beim Essen) :)))
Oh, dann musst du sagen “verflucht gut” oder “verflucht interessant”. “Verflucht” alleine ist definitiv “cursed” :)
It seems like this is not related to “plague”, which surprises me
Interesting question, actually. “plagen” and “plague” do likely come from a word that was about beating, striking, so that would tie in perfectly, but I couldn’t find any mention for an actual connection, neither in English nor German sources.
I just got my membership thanks to generous community members who paid extra for scholarships. Hopefully one day when my economical situation is better I can return the favor by helping others. Viele Grüße to those members and Emanuel for supporting those of us who can’t afford it!! <3
Re Calendar 19, look at Grimm’s Law on Wikipedia, which comments on the change from ‘p’ to ‘f’.
Ok, here’s the thing: I have the concentration capacity of a goldfish: 2 seconds later and it’s a whole new bowl…
So, a few days ago I posted a query (THOUGHT under the synonym Türchen) asking you to explain the diff between spüren, wahrnehmen, empfinden and fühlen oder, anfühlen – es fühlt sich si/so an…
My goldfish memory keeps telling me to look for your possible reply in the synonym-türchen feed but I’m not finding the reply NOR my question. This is NOT to stress you into replying, it’s your site, you decide to whom you reply, but if you have replied, could you gimme a heads up as to where – can’t find it. Wondering if it got sent or if I only sent it in my vivid fantasy. It smells like I sent it…
I’m like 99% sure that I didn’t miss a comment, so maybe it didn’t get posted?
There’s definitely no word “fühlen” on the synonym page anywhere.
Could you ask again, und vielleicht hier:
https://yourdailygerman.com/fuehlen-sich-fuehlen-anfuehlen-difference/
Ich verfluche nichts, niemandem, sogar dieses verdammt hässliches Virus in diesen Zustand! Am Morgen kommt
Die längsten Nacht des Jahres, Wintersonnenwende , die Slostice des Winter . Das All ist in Schwung .Dann kommt weiter Weihnachtsnacht. Es ist eine flüchtige Zeit für Zusammenhielt, Freude und Friede an eure chaotischen Welt .
Be Blessed you all.
Bis Morgen
“Die längsten Nacht des Jahres, Wintersonnenwende ”
Wow, es ist schon so weit!! Super, dann werden die Tage wieder länger. Gute Nachrichten :)
Be blessed you and yours, too!
Das ist gut, dass Du niemand(en)Akk verfluchst.
Alles Gute Dir, Ahmad
i guess it’s a german christmas tradition. i caught planet der affen (1968) on tv the other night.
when taylor sees the statue on the beach and proceeds to pound the sand, he laments, »Ihr Wahnsinnigen! Ihr habt die Erde in die Luft gesprengt! Ich verfluche euch! Ich verfluche euch, euch alle!«
the original: “You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! God damn you all to hell!”
and to all a good night
The more literal translation would be “Verdammt sollt ihr sein” but I think that’s a bit too theatrical. “verflucht” matches the vibe better.
Hallo,
Ich hoffe, dass du über diese Typos mich nicht verfluchst!
“of you guitar with” (of your guitar with)
“people pound there fist against” (people pound their fists against)
“might have started have started from the idea” (one have started too many – lol)
“Kaffee ins essen gemischt” (Kaffee ins Essen gemischt – OMG (another religious term), I found one in German… LOL)
“leave me a comments” (leave me a comments)
Dieses Artikel hat mich erinnert an eine CD von Nino de Angelo, die “Gesegnet und Verflucht heißt!
Schönen Sonntag und bis Morgen!
Eine kleine Korrektur: Mein Uberfahrer hat die ganze Fahrt geflucht – Im Audio ist es Zeit statt Fahrt.
Übrigens würde ich niemals als Engländer “to curse” verwenden, es sei denn, es bedeutet das, was eine Hexe macht. Schimpfwörter zu nutzen = to swear.
Ah, ich hab mich gefragt, ob es einen Unterschied zwischen “to curse” and “to swear” gibt.
Für Amerikaner gibt es den Unterschied nicht wirklich. Cuss ist Umgangssprache bzw. Dialekt und bedeutet eindeutig dasselbe wie swear (im Sinne von use profanity). Aber “curse words” und “swear words” sind z.B. völlig austauschbar.
Ist “cuss” das gleiche wie “curse”?
Ja genau. Aber es bedeutet nur fluchen, nie verfluchen.
Ich bin seit meinem Geburt verflucht. Wahrscheinlich von einer der bösen Feen auf der Mütterliche Seite, und zwar: ich bekomme alles was ich mir wünsche. Ja, aber NIEMALS, so als ich es gedacht habe, sondern auf eine komische Weise, das meine Wünsche erfüllt, aber mir auch gleichseitig maximal Mist baut.
Kein Scheiß.
Das klingt nach Stoff für einen Disney-Film :)
Kannst du den Stoff an Disney verkaufen, bekommst du 18%.
Young American woman, ambitious, smart, free spirited, doesn’t take shit from no one. Things seem to fall into place for her.
But as she’s surfing the wave of life, she slowly discovers… whatever life gives her, always comes with a twist. And so she embarks on a journey to the land of reindeers (Europe) to discover the truth she was always looking for… is family.
(that last part is mainly in it for Disney).
I’ll send this to Cathleen Kennedy asap!
Don’t forget a snowman or teapot that talk. And dance. And sing.
Of course. The songs planned so far are:
“Sweet Sweden” (up beat song)
“A Hamburger in Hamburg” (comedic relief)
“With a Twist” (drama aria)
Ich werde heute den ganzen Tag fluchen, weil ich plötzlich nicht nach Deutschland reisen kann. Ich hatte alles f**** vorbereitet, Fähre, Winterreifen….ich bin fast sprachlos (außer Schimpfwörter) Weihnachten ist f**** vorbei!!!
Ja – die Lage ist plötzlich wieder Schieße geworden ;-(.
Natürlich wollte ich Scheiße schrieben. ;-)
Und du wolltest “schreiben” schreiben ;)
Oh nein!!! Was ist denn jetzt wieder?? Aus welchem Land, kommst du? Warum kannst du nicht rein??
And schwören also meaning to swear in a legal sense.
Genau!
Ich lese schnell und nicht so gut.
“Cuss” is slang for “curse”. We say “cursing” because we’re “damning” someone or thing (or done similar act). It’s like we’re putting a curse on that thing/person. I suppose swearing is similar. We’re declaring something.
Camille