The Meaning of “das Gewissen”

Hello everyone,

and welcome to  our German Word of the Day.
This time, with a word that’s a key ingredient of what makes humans humans. And it ALSO has in it a whole bunch of interesting connections – between languages and also between language and philosophy:

das Gewissen

It’s not a word that you’d use every day, so chances are high that you’ve never really noticed it. But it stands for something that is with us every single day.
Because das Gewissen is the German word for the conscience.
And as different as these two look on the surface – they’re actually pretty much the same word.

The words “Gewissen” and “conscience”

You probably noticed the “wissen” in Gewissen, right? Which of course means to know.
So far so good.
Now, you might have never noticed it, because it’s hidden in plain sight, but the word conscience has science in it. It’s not related to the word wissen, but the core goal of science is indeed knowledge and the German word for science is die Wissenschaft. 
And that’s not all. Because science comes from the Latin verb scire and that meant… to know. Just like wissen.
Now you might be like “Wow, I totally forgot what we’re talking about.”. but that’s just our modern ADHD brains talking.
We’re talking about how the words Gewissen and conscience and how they’re the same word essentially. Because it’s not only the wissen-part that’s the same. It’s also the prefixes.

The first part of conscience is the prefix con-, a variant of co- and the core theme of this prefix is together, with.
And now guess what: the German ge-prefix is the same.

Like…  ge-prefix might actually be a literal cousin of co- . And while that is not 100% certain, it’s definitely thematically related.
Now you’re probably like “Wait, I thought ge- was about past tense.”
And yes, that is its most prevalent use today. But there are plenty of words with ge- that are not about past tense.
Like das Gebirge (mountain range),  das Gehirn (brain), gehören (to belong) and many more.
Of course you now want to know how the heck these connect, but that’d be too much for today. I do have an article (and book) about this stuff coming up though, so more to come soon.
But yeah… ge- basically was a prefix like all the others, and I would decribe its core theme as toward one point. Or in other words, coming together.
Just like con-.

So, das Gewissen and the conscience both basically mean “with-knowledge” if we take them literally.
And in fact, das Gewissen is basically a word people made up to have a proper German based term for the Latin based conscience. And the Romans didn’t come up with it either. They just translated it from ancient Greek syné͞idēsis. Which also basically meant something like “with-knowing”.
And why?

Well, I’m not a philosophy major or anything, so please correct me if I am wrong, but as far as I have read, the idea of a conscience came from Ancient Greek philosophy and it was kind of an inner voice or a “part of self” that is watching you and knows along with you, what you’re doing.
Like… when you secretly drink your flatmate’s whisky and replace it with unicorn pee (which happens to taste like aged single malt scotch) you know it. But also your inner “with-knower” knows it. You could think of it as your “best self”, which is then making you feel guilty. 

I found all that really interesting when I read about it, so I wanted to share it. And it’s also a great example for con- and ge- kind of being the same thing. But more on that in the article that’s coming soon.

Cool.
So that’s the word history and the underlying ideas of the words.
Now, let’s look at some examples and also explore some more words in the family of Gewissen.

“das Gewissen” in Practice

In terms of meaning, das Gewissen and the conscience are pretty much the same.

• Ich kann das nicht mit meinem Gewissen vereinbaren.
• I can’t reconcile this with my conscience.
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• Ein reines Gewissen ist ein sanftes Ruhekissen.
• A clear conscience is a soft resting pillow.
  (German proverb. “rein” feels a bit more like “clean” to me, but the translations I found were with “clear”.)
  
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I feel like Gewissen is a bit more common in German overall though, particularly in phrasings like schlechtes Gewissen. Which is the German phrase for guilty conscience but it’s quite commonly used also for small things where English would just “feel bad” or “feel guilty”

• Ich habe ein schlechtes Gewissen, weil ich zu spät gekommen bin.
• I feel bad because I was late.
  (SUPER common phrasing.)
  
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• Du brauchst kein schlechtes Gewissen haben, dass du vergessen hast, Trinkgeld zu geben. Die Kellner hier in Schweden verdienen gut.
• You don’t need to feel bad that you forgot to tip. The waiters here in Sweden are paid well.
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Then, there are a couple of related words, that are pretty self explanatory.

• Wie kann man so gewissenlos sein.
• How can one be so unscrupulous.
  (lit: “conscience-less”)
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• Ich habe Gewissensbisse, weil ich Marias Geburtstag vergessen habe.
• I have pangs of conscience/feel bad because I forgot Maria’s birthday.
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• Maria arbeitet sehr gewissenhaft.
• Maria is working very diligently/conscientiously.
  (To me, the “logic” is that you do a proper job that your conscience is happy with)
  
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But there are also a bunch of related words that are NOT self explanatory, at least not if you think of them in terms of conscience.

Some other relatives

As we learned half an hour ago (perceived time) at the beginning of the article, das Gewissen was basically kind of fabricated to directly translate the word conscience.
But there are a bunch of other words with ge- and wissen out there and they revolve around a theme of being (un)certain. Which is basically just a result of knowing (or not knowing).

• Ob wir den Auftrag bekommen, ist noch ungewiss.
• Whether or not we get the project is still uncertain/”unknown”.
  (sounds a bit fancy. “unklar” is the more colloquial option)
  
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• Die Ungewissheit, ob die Firma pleite geht, ist sehr belastend.
• The uncertainty if the company goes bankrupt is very taxing for the team.
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• “Wo fahrt ihr hin?”
  “Ins Ungewisse.”
• “Where are you going?”
  “Into the unknown.”
  (Sounds a bit epic)
  
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And if you’re now wondering “Wait, are there also versions without the un-?” – yes, there are of course. I just thought the ones with un- are a little more clear in terms of the idea of knowledge. Like… it’s not about certainty with the focus on probability or statistics. It’s certainty from an angle of knowing.

• Das Land braucht endlich Gewissheit, wer die nächsten 4 Jahre regiert.
• The country really needs certainty about who will govern the next 4 years.
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• “Wo ist Lord Thomas?”
  “Gewiss ist er in der Taverne.”
• “Where is Lord Thomas?”
  “Certainly he is at the tavern.”
  (Sounds old fashioned but you’ll find it in books and newspapers)
  
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• Der Spieler gibt sich im Interview vor dem Spiel siegesgewiss.
• The player presents himself certain of victory in the pregame interview.
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And last but not least, lets not forget gewisse, which is certain in that slightly weird sense of “you know what I mean”.

• Maria will gewisse Leute nicht auf der Party haben.
• Maria doesn’t want to have certain people at the party.
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• Diese Suppe hat einfach das gewisse Etwas.
• This soup just has that certain something.
  (Quite common expression, not sure if it actually works in English)
  
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Cool.
And I think that’s it for today.
Now, I think some of you are probably  uhm… lowkey (sorry, couldn’t resist) hoping that we’ll also talk about the word conscious and its brethren and how to say those in German.
But it’s a bit of a mess and I think it’s better to untangle that in a separate article and wrap things up for today.

So yeah, this was our look at das Gewissen and the surprising connections to conscience and our Higher Self™.

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Now, when I tried making the quiz, I couldn’t really think of enough things to ask, so we’ll skip that this time.
But do let me know all your thoughts and questions in the comments. Also, I’d love to know what your word for conscience is.
Like… what is it in Arabic, or Chinese, or Russian or Vietnamese or Persian or Hebrew. And what’s the background of the term.
I could of course just look it up online, but that’s kind of just knowledge stuffing. I’d much rather read from you and talk about it in the comments. Feels more organic that way.
Anyway, that’s it for today. I hope you enjoyed it, have a great week and see you next time.