Hallo ihr alle,
and welcome to our first (well, actually second) Word of the Day Wundertüten-Special. Now you’re of course all like “What’s a Wundertüte”. Well, ein Wunder is a wonder or a miracle and eine Tüte is a bag.
So a Wundertüte is literally a miracle bag and it’s no surprise that it’s a euphemism for a joint. But the main meaning is a different one. I don’t know if they’re still selling this but when I was a kid a Wundertüte was sold at a lot of kiosks and it was a sealed bag with a bunch of surprises in it, like chocolate, chewing, a yo-yo, a sticker or a Sony Play Station. At least that one guy in the other class claimed he got one. Although… now that I think about it that makes me a bit suspicious because… I doubt they actually sold Play Station in East Germany. God, I was so naive as a kid. Anyway, so a Wundertüte is the same idea as an Überraschungsei.
And that’s pretty much what a Wundertüten-Special is. Instead of looking at one of the main stream words, we’ll leave the beaten tracks of learners and venture out into the wild a bit. And trust me, there are a lot of really really cool and super useful gems out there. So, are you ready to dive in and learn some words that will really make you sound like a native without being slang? Awesome.
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Just read “crawling up one’s ass”.
We have this in german too – “jemandem in den Arsch kriechen”.
And just to add to that
– Arschkriecher (person who does arschkriechen)
Both are very common in German.
Soll es nicht Müßiggang heißen?
Ja, sollte es :)… das “i” war ein bisschen faul.
I’ll leave you alone. Then you can talk bad/gossip about me a bit (wink).
(what would be an idiomatic way to say this… I feel like “running your mouth” sounds a bit slangy)
I think you’re already using the best word when you say ‘bitch’ although this does come with the connotation of being done more by women than by men:
“I’ll leave you alone. Then you can bitch about me for a bit (wink)”.
Another option is to say ‘slag off’ which is equally applicable to men or women. I’m maybe showing my age here but ‘bitch’ is a fairly recent American import to the UK and in my youth it would have been:
“I’ll leave you alone. Then you can slag me off for a bit (wink)”.
I’ve never heard “slag off” before but I feel like it’s quite a good match. If it were still used, that is. To me “bitching” sounds a bit too much like “whining” while there’s usually a lot of pleasure in “lästern”
Hmm, then I think we’re in ‘gossip’ territory as you originally had in your post.
Gossip has the sense of pleasure while bitching and slagging off are harder and more angry or resentful.
Yeah, I’ve spent way too much time over the last few days trying to figure out a good expression for “lästern,” to no avail.
– “Gossiping” is good for the guilty-pleasure aspect, but it does tend to indicate sharing rumors a little more than just saying mean stuff.
– “Slagging off” is 100% British, so I wouldn’t use it and would have to go with MacFeagel’s assessment.
– “Bitching” is definitely whining/complaining generally.
– “Talking shit” is fairly on-target, but it’s pretty (obviously) slangy and profane. It also doesn’t have the “behind someone’s back” aspect built in.
– “Trashing” might work OK, though it’s not specifically about speech as such and might be particularly American (as is “talking shit,” maybe?).
– “Slandering,” “maligning,” “backbiting” are all too formal and serious.
Most other expressions I could think of that have the “having fun being mean” feel to them are more about saying things directly to somebody rather than behind their back. Honestly, in my experience (largely in Texas and the South), “talking about somebody (behind his/her back)” all by itself usually has the connotation that you’re doing some lästern.
Thanks for rounding up the options! I’ll add a reference to that in the post, I think :)
How about “wasting”?
Where are you from? With enough context, I’d understand what you meant, but “wasting” somebody would never occur to me as a way to express that. Without context, I’d assume “wasting” someone meant beating them severely or killing them (literally or figuratively).
To me “bitching” certainly is complaining and a little angry or, at the very least, mean.
I have recently heard the word “dishing” used as a much friendlier synonym for “gossiping.” I’ve heard it used like it’s an actual pastime. People will say, “We need to get together sometime and dish.” Unlike “to gossip,” “to dish” doesn’t sound to me like it is secretive, and unlike “to bitch” it doesn’t sound negative at all. This use may only be an American use though.
The way you describe it sounds like it’s a really, really good match :)
Hi, i’m a little bit confused…Playstation was first introduced in 1994! So yes it couldn’t have been sold in DDR…right?
Great post though
Damn, you’re right… so the actually guy actually lied twice in one statement. Weird ;)
Fun words!
If I were saying “I lied a bit in my CV about my work experience.” I would probably say “I fibbed a little…” or “I stretched the truth…” To use “lied” sounds a too harsh for just a little bit of a cheat.
Would “to fib” generally work as a translation for “schummeln”? Like… could I “fib” at a card game?
No. When playing cards (and a few other occasions when you’re intentionally deceiving someone) the common word is “to bluff.” It has the same general meaning as “schummeln” or “fib” but fib doesn’t work in the context of playing cards, so go with “bluff”.
“Fib” really only applies to written or spoken information. It is similar to a “white lie” or a “tall tale”. Is “schummeln” general enough to apply to both an action in a game and a type of speech? I also thought of “bluff” for a card game, but is it the same as “schummeln?” Bluffing is not breaking the rules of the game in poker. If you “schummeln” in a game is it breaking the rules of the game?
Yeah, “schummeln” is definitely breaking the rules, or at least stretching them very far. A bluff in poker (as I know it) is called “Blöff” in German. But “schummeln” is pretty universal. You can “schummeln” in writing but also with actions.
Oh, while we’re at it… it doesn’t actually work for computer games. That is called “cheaten”. “Schummeln” would sound really really really odd in that context, as would “cheaten” for anything else. German really likes adopting English that way… two words with specific meanings are always better than one general word :D
I’d definitely just go with “cheat” in basically any game, certainly cards. Usually the context shows how serious the offense is, so “cheat” covers the whole range from “schummeln” to “betrügen.”
There are quite a few expressions for various types of cheating or lying that could line up with places where you might use “schummeln”:
– “to fib” (as others said) is to lie in a small or inconsequential way
– “to fudge” (verb, not the delicious dessert) is to… something like “to approximate,” to make something look right that really isn’t. I think it could work for the example with the actors who wouldn’t kiss (the filmmakers had to fudge the scene a bit). You could also use it with information, like numbers in a presentation or expense report.
– “to cook the books” is more egregious financial/accounting cheating.
– “to swindle” or “to con” is to cheat somebody out of money or something else valuable; “con man” is a good colloquial translation for “(Trick-)Betrüger.” Both are pretty serious (“swindle” sounds more formal and serious), but “con” is colloquial enough to use in situations where “schummeln” might work.
I’m sure there are lots of others, too – probably the Brits around these parts have some different vocabulary for this stuff as well.
Oh, in German there’s “schwindeln” which is a cute version of “lügen” and it’s mostly used with kids. As for cooking the books… in German that’s called “die Bücher frisieren” (literally: giving the books a new hair do)
Wait, now I’m confused… “bluffing” in poker is to pretend you have something that you don’t have. That is not “schummeln”. “Schummeln” is always about breaking some sort of rule. If you see your opponents cards in the reflection of the window behind him, that would be “schummeln”… unless you’re playing for hard cash. There’s no “schummeln” then, just “betrügen” :D
You’re right — my mistake. Bluffing in this case wouldn’t work. I was focusing on your point that “schummeln” is a way to soften something, the way “fib” softens “lie.” But re-reading your entire definition above, in this case, I agree, it is cheating (i.e. firmly breaking the rules). But in the contrast you use to describe the difference between Betrügen and schummeln I don’t think works in English with to cheat. “To cheat” has the same force as “to lie” or “to steal” and so it doesn’t soften anything — it always sounds serious. If someone wanted to accuse somebody else of cheating while playing cards, but to soften it so as to make it sound “softer” and not as serious, he might say something like “he took some liberty with rules” during the card game. That makes the same point, but is not nearly as strong as saying “he cheated”.
– Müßggang ist aller Laster Anfang.
Häufiger als “the devil finds work…” (die Version kannte ich nicht) ist “Idle hands are the devil’s tools” (oder “workshop”, “playthings”, “playground”).
– Nach dem Seminar treffen sich Anja und Johannes immer im Café um erstmal so richtig über ihre Kommilitonen abzulästern.
– After the seminar, Anja and Jonathan always meet at the café for an intense session of bitching and complaining about their fellow students (no idea how to translate that… help please )
Finde ich sehr gut. “Bitching and complaining” ist ein bisschen doppelt gemoppelt aber es geht sowieso.
Ja, ich hab’ bei Dict.cc geguckt und da gab es vier oder fünf verschiedene Versionen von dem Sprichwort. Mein Favorit war glaube ich
– An idle brain is the devils workshop.
da es irgendwie am nächsten an der Idee dran ist, dass, wer nix zu tun hat, leicht auf dumme Gedanken kommt.
Alles in allem klingt das nach einem ziemlich protestantischen Sprichwort :). Weißt du zufällig wo das herkommt?
Na ja, die Idee findet man in etlichen Bibelstellen. Wiktionary vermutet, dass das Sprichwort sich aus einem vom Kirchenvater Hieronymus (4. Jhdt.) entwickelt hat. Kann auch sein, dass es von Geoffrey Chaucer (14. Jhdt.) geprägt wurde. Auf jeden Fall älter als der Protestantismus. :)
Also, mein Sohn hat eben jetzt ein Buch bekommen, das «Autos und Laster» nennt. Stellen Sie sich meine Verwirrung vor, als ich den Titel gesehen hab, lol. Also Laster bedeutet auch “big truck(s)”, usw, und die zu magen ist ein “Laster”? haha
*mögen meinte ich.
“DER Laster” heißt “(big) truck”, glaube ich – abgekürzt von “Lastkraftwagen” (= LKW).
Hahaha… ja. Laster ist auch ein Truck. Dieses Wort kommt von “die Last” (the load). LWK, das offizielle Wort für Truck, bedeutet übrigens Lastkraftwagen.
Aber das hat nichts mit “das Laster” zu tun. Obwohl es Sinn machen würde… ein Laster (z.B. Rauchen) ist ja auch irgendwie eine Last :)
“das «Autos und Laster» nennt”
Wer nennt was? ;)
ein Buch namens/genannt/betitelt[?] «Autos und Laster» bekommen
ein Buch bekommen mit dem Namen/Titel «Autos und Laster»
Oh, das habe ich vergessen, zu berichtigen… es muss natürlich heißen
– …. ein Buch, das “Autos und Laster” heißt.
Nicht “nennt”
“Wundertüte” sounds a lot like the “Schultüte” my German teacher would present to all of her students on our first day of class (except we got X-boxes, not Play Stations.”)
The dialog you created to explain, lästern reminded me of the hilarious lyrics to the Blondie song, “Rip her to Shreds”… Too funny!
Yeah, I think in some regions of Germany a “Schultüte” is actually called “Wundertüte”. Not in the East though, as far as I know…
I think “No more brown nose” would be a perfectly fine headline in English (at least in American English). The idiom is so idiomatic that we’ve lost any sense of where that brown on the nose might have come from.
I was going to say this – Google “brown nosing at work” and one of the top results is a Time article called “6 Ways To Brown Nose Your Way To the Very Top.” (Subtitle: “Without getting a reputation for being a kiss-up”). I wouldn’t say we’ve lost the sense of where the brown comes from, just that it’s an indirect enough reference not to be considered that off-color (so to speak).
By the way, I’d totally understand “crawling up someone’s ass,” but that wouldn’t occur to me as a normal way to express the idea. To my mind, these are all the most common expressions (more or less in order from least to most profane):
– kissing up
– sucking up
– brown nosing
– kissing (someone’s) butt/ass
Yeah, that crawling-expression is more for the readers who are not native speakers and that might not know the up-versions or the brown nose. It would be an interesting question actually if the image of crawling up someone’s butt is universally understood as sucking up. like… would someone from China who has had no contact to English understand this?
By the way… how common is the word “asshamster”. If found it in the dictionary and that just cracked me up… such a funny image.
I have never heard the term “asshamster” before. I did just look it up, and there are plenty of entries that indicate it is a synonym for “bootlicker”, “brown noser” etc., so it does exist in English (most entries were in the slangy Urban Dictionary). Maybe it is an age thing — I’m in my 50s and I’ve never heard it, but it might be a term that younger people use today that I’m just unaware of.
P.S. But yes, it’s a very funny word/ image… ;-)
Same as you – it’s hilarious, but I’ve never heard it (early 30s here).
I’m assuming it’s got something to do with this: https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/478/is-it-true-what-they-say-about-gerbils
Hahaha. My first reaction was that it was related to the “gerbil phenomenon” also, which is why I looked it up! The Urban legend lives on. In USA Today last week, there was an article about a recent episode of the game show, Family Feud. The show’s host asks a question, and the contestants answer immediately with the first answer that pops into their heads. In this episode, the question was, “Name something a doctor might remove from a person.” The woman who hit the buzzer first, immediately responded, “A gerbil.” (Poor Richard Gere — that’s one unfortunate rumor that will never die!) ;-)
BTW, that’s a pretty impressive list in the article you linked to… OUCHHHHHHHHHH.
It certainly sounds funny, but I can’t say I’ve every heard anybody use the word “asshamster” (I’m in my early 30’s). And, without any context, I wouldn’t be able to tell whether the word is a synonym for “brown noser” or some sort of sexual pejorative.
Oh, that’s definitely a surprise… I always thought English news media would be very sensitive with anything remotely reeking of foul language :)
I think we’re seeing a bit of a UK – US difference here, brown-nosing wouldn’t be so likely in a British broadsheet (Times, Telegraph etc) or on the BBC.
Your comment made this idea pop into my head… Gordon Brown nosing. I only found 5 hits on Google… weird :)
LOL. If he’d been American there would have been more.
:)
Great post! Thank you! I’d love to see more of these. My German friends are always so impressed when I correctly use words you’ve explained. You make me sound so much cooler ; )
Freut mich :)
“Finally smoke free: here’s how you stop the bad habit.”
This is pretty much perfect. I could imagine seeing this on a billboard. I might add the word “can” to the sentence, but it works as it is.
I’d say “break the habit” is a little more idiomatic, though.
Or, with smoking especially, it is usually, “kick” the habit.
Umm, sorry no. Not idiomatic I’m afraid.
“Smoke free at last. Now you can kick the habit”.
Habits always get kicked.
I would also be more likely to say “break a habit,” if it is a bad one. Either would be idiomatic in that a habit can not be affected physically by breaking or kicking.
I’ve been thinking about this, and I would definitely agree that “kick the habit” is the more common idiom for something like quitting smoking. To me, “breaking a habit” is more general, maybe even neutral – you can “break” a good habit, or a habit of doing something that’s not necessarily bad in itself.
I’d use “kick the habit” with something like an addiction or vice, a habit that’s a source of pleasure but that you know is bad for you, and I’d tend to use it more when I’m talking about quitting entirely. It sort of sounds weird to me to imagine “kicking the fingernail-biting habit” (more a compulsion than a vice) or “kicking the habit of checking my phone every minute” (the problem is the frequency, not the behavior as such). But that might be my own idiosyncrasies.
https://www.google.com/search?q=%22break%20*%20habit%22&rct=j
“Nu-uh, you cheated. You went one field too far”
In English, we’d say “one space too far”.
Ich will mich nicht einschleimen, aber der war ein super Blog-Eintrag :) Ich würde gern weitere “Wundertütenspecials” lesen.
It is interesting that the word “sack” brings images of a rustic, burlap bag in German and English. Any word etymology? Who had the word first? English or German?
Latin did. They had “saccus” (which they probably imported it from a Semitic language, which might have imported it from Assyrian if that’s a word) .
The Germanic tribes adopted it during the time when they were trading with the Romans.
Fun Wundertüte, danke. The last line confused me. Bis takes Dative but you wrote bis nächsteS Mal. Why isn’t it bis nächsteN Mal?
“Bis” alone takes accusative.
– Bis nächste Woche.
– Bis nächsten Montag.
– Bis nächstes Mal.
But it’s often used in combination with “zu” and the “zu” then prompts the Dative
– Bis zum (zu dem) nächsten Mal
Das wäre ein interessanter Beitrag – bis, bis zu, bis auf und was auch immer es noch gibt.
Stimmt!! Danke