Meanings
1. the back side of the neck (Primarily used for the outside and muscles, and not so much the actual spine. That is usually called "Genick". )
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Relatives (beta)
Discussion
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Vocab:
neigen (zu), die Neigung, die Abneigung, die Zuneigung, abgeneigt sein, nicken, das Nickerchen
Word Family
Root\: unknown (or not yet entered)
Questions and Comments
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“(That refers to the outside and to the muscles, but NOT the spine.)”
Does this mean if that if the bones in my neck hurt (my cervical spine) for example, I don’t use “Nacken” ? If yes then what should I use? “Hals”?
And If I say:
“Mein Nacken tut mir weh.”
What does that imply?
I think my note was a bit too extreme, so I modified it a bit.
If someone says that their Nacken hurts I’d assume it’s the muscles in the rear of the neck and the upper part of the shoulders.
Of course it could also be the spine, but for “breaking the neck” for example, the word would be “das Genick” not “der Nacken”.
A doctor would call the whole thing HWS which is short for “Halswirbelsäule” (neck-spine).
There’s also “Schweinenacken”, which is a meat dish made from the neck and “Stiernacken” which is a word for a person with super big upper traps.