German Word of the Day – “komisch”

Hello everyone,

and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we will look at the meaning of:

komisch

The origin of komisch is the Greek word κωμικός. Looking at that the meaning of komisch should be evident. So this was our STRANGELY (oh, strangely is capitalized… I wonder why) short Word of the Day. I hope you liked it and see you next time.
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Ok ok, I admit it, the Greek word is but a few STRANGE (oh it is all capitalized again) letters also to me. In our alphabet it reads kōmikós. So komisch sort of has the same origins as comedy and comical. That strongly suggests that it means something like funny or amusing. But STRANGELY (so what’s up with this strange capitals all the time) the meaning of komisch has somewhat shifted.
Today, the main meaning is 

strange… now who saw that coming :)

Most dictionaries still give both concepts, funny and strange, as possible translations and it might be appropriate given that I don’t know how people in other parts of Germany perceive the word. But honestly I  would go as far as to say that komisch has almost entirely lost the original meaning of funny or comical and has instead become the number one choice to express that something is weird or strange. By the way, the very first translation Leo.org is offering is the word comic. That is clearly not the best choice so this is a really good example why you shouldn’t use Leo unless you are somewhat fluent. Anyway, let’s look at some

• Deine Suppe riecht komisch.
• Your soup smells strange.

• Komisch. Ich dachte, ich hätte noch 20 Euro.
• Weird. I thought I still had 20 Euros.

• Es ist komisch, komisch als lustig zu verwenden.
• It is odd to use komisch as funny.

You still could use komisch in sense of funny when you talk about a comedy or a clown. The context sort of makes it clear what you are trying to say but to me there is still some doubt as to whether you think the clown is funny or strange. Without any contextual hint however komisch does not mean funny to me at all.

• Thomas ist ein komischer Typ.

This sentence means that Thomas is WEIRD. If you want to tell me that Thomas is a funny guy you would have to say:

• Thomas ist ein lustiger Typ.

Another example:

• Der Film war komisch.

To me that means the film was STRANGE. If you want to say that it was funny, lustig is the right choice of words.

• Der Film ist lustig.

As I said, you might find examples contradictory to this in dictionaries but I would strongly recommend to use komisch as strange and lustig as funny. It is just more clear. The only occasion where komisch clearly means funny is when used ironic, so it means funny when it was actually not funny. You’ll need this phrase a lot on this site… you know… my puns aren’t the best ;)

• Haha… sehr komisch!
• Haha, how funny!

The other words that originate from the Greek  kōmikós have pretty much  kept their meaning. Der Komiker is the comedian, die Komödie is the comedy (as in a play) and die Komik is the humor, but most of the time the better translation for that is der Humor.

To wrap this up here are the forms for stranger and the strangest. It is komisch – komischer – am komischsten. Especially the last one has some tongue-twisting potential and you can use it to train your pronunciation skills … cohmish-s-ten. Just make sure you are alone and you have a dry mouth :).

So this was our Word of the Day komisch. It used to mean funny but now it has evolved and is now THE word for strange, odd or weird. If you have questions or suggestions, I’d be happy if you leave me a comment.
I hope you liked it and see you next time.