Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German word of the Day or actually…today it’s more of a style special … well… not really a style special… it’s a … uhm… it’s just a special and specials are awesome. Now, we all have noses. And noses are awesome, too, because we can smell with them…okay, except if we need to pee right after that colleague had had his morning constitutional; then it’s not that awesome but anyway, specials are awesome, noses are – mostly – awesome, together they’re super awesome and that’s why today we’ll do a
nose-special
or in German
“Nasen-sbäschl”
We’ll look at the different parts and shapes, we’ll gather all activities that are related to our nose and we’ll take a look at the wealth of nose-idioms that German has to offer. Smells good?
Cool.
Nose – the schematics
Let’s start with a look at the nose itself. In German it is called die Nase.
Of course both words are related and when we trace them back over centuries and centuries and more centuries we’ll finally arrive at the very super incredibly freaking ancient Indo-European root *nas- which meant… the exact same thing. Nose. Nose erprises there… haha.
At the tip of the nose, there’s the uhm … tip of the nose, which in German is called Nasenspitze. A Spitze is a more or less pointy top and it is used for a variety of things… Messerspitze , Bergspitze and even Landspitze. Spitze is also a fabric and it is used as an adjective much like the English top notch.
- Spitzenunterwäsche ist eine Spitzenidee.
- Lace underwear is a top notch idea.
All right. Left and right of the Nasenspitze are the Nasenflügel – the nose wing. Wing probably comes from the same root as wind while der Flügel actually comes from the activity you do with it.. fliegel (to fly). But although they’re not related they translate really well…
- Im Westflügel spielt einer vom rechten Flügel der Partei Flügel.
- In the west wing someone of the right wing of the party is playing wing piano.
Both Nasenspitze and Nasenflügel are the end of what is called Nasenrücken – the (b)ridge of the nose. This is basically a bone and bone is related to the German word das Bein. A few centuries back Bein still meant simply bone, but then came der Knochen and took over, and Bein changed and means leg today… but not always. Here and there we can see left-overs of the original Bein… for example in German word for ivory… Elfenbein, which literally means… oh my god… fairy bone?! Jesus, this is awful…. those poor fairies. But anyway, another example for the old bone-Bein is the word der Nasenbeinbruch
- Der Spieler spielt trotz Nasenbeinbruch weiter.
- The player continues playing despite a fracture of the bridge of the nose.
Wow, German is actually shorter for once :).
Now, a nose wouldn’t make much sense if it had no opening, no Nasenlöcher.
- Mein linkes Nasenloch ist verstopft.
- My left nose hole/nostril is stuffed.
By the way… das Loch is not related to the Scottish Loch as in Loch Ness, but rather to the word locker… which kind of is a whole in the wall.
All right.
Now, every nose looks different and there are a million shapes but beside a normal boring nose, there are 3 special types of nose … the Knoll(en)nase, the Hakennase and the Stupsnase.
Eine Knolle is mostly used for vegetables… potatoes are a Knolle, celery is a Knolle and oddly even garlic comes by the Knolle. So a Knolle is basically a kind of ball and a Knollnase has this big round tip. Find some examples here.
Ein Haken is a hook and a Hakennase has this characteristic downward curve along the bridge (click here for examples) . Some people also call it Adlernase (eagle-nose) but Hakennase is the more common name, and in English it’s also called hook nose I think. It’s kind of form over function here, though because a hook nose is exactly not the nose you can hang, say, your coat on to. It’ll just fall down.
That’s different for the Stupsnase, which is the one that is more or less pointing upward (see here for examples) . Stups comes from the verb stupsen which I would translate as to cutely and softly poke. Cats do that their head for example. Or your loved one does it when you’re passing out at ballet. So I think Stupsnase is called Stupsnase because this kind of nose is especially fit for stupsen. And both, the nose and the word are cute, or at least I think so, and so it makes sense.
Cool.
So that was the nose from the outside. Time to shrink ourselves and take a look inside. There, we’ll find mainly 3 things: Nasenhaare which is self translating, die Schleimhaut (mucous membrane), which literally means slime skin and of course plenty of boogers which in German are called Popel. I really like the word der Popel. It just sounds the part. And there are even words based on Popel… for example popelig, which is a colloquial term somewhere between small, irrelevant, weak and pathetic.
- Mit deinen popeligen 10 Euro kriegst du in diesem Restaurant nicht mal ein Glas Wasser.
- In this restaurant, you won’t even get a glass of water with your piddly 13 bucks.
And conveniently there also the verb that describes the often ostracized act of getting ‘dem boogers out with your fingers… popeln.
- Hör auf zu popeln.
- Stop picking your nose.
And thus we’re already in the middle of the next part and I wonder where the headlin…oh there it is
Nose – related verbs
Yeah thanks… try to be a little earlier next time. Stupid headline.
Anyways, there is an alternative to popeln… no, I don’t mean blowing the nose. That won’t get the dry ones out. I mean a verbal alternative. In der Nase bohren is often used to express that someone has nothing to do.
- Der neue macht nichts ausser Kaffee trinken und in der Nase bohren.
- The new guy does nothing but drinking coffee and picking the nose (lit.: drilling in the nose)
Now, if there are not just a few Popel in there but 2 liters of snot, we have the following two options… breathe in or breathe out
- Ich schnaube mir die Nase.
- I blow my nose.
- Ich ziehe (mir) die Nase hoch.
- I snuffle.
But enough with that. Let’s get to the actual purpose of the nose besides breathing and that is our sense of smell.
The verb to smell has no known relatives outside English and the German translation is riechen. This is related to to reek but just like to smell it works both way… so it can mean to send out a smell as well as to receive and decode it.
- Das Essen riecht gut.
- The food smells good.
- Der Hund hat das Essen gerochen.
- The dog has smelled the food.
Riechen is the ONLY word for to take in a smell but there are more for the sending out. Here they are in the order of pleasantness :) .. together with their past forms
- stinken – riechen – duften
- stink – smell – smell good/scent
Stinken is always negative.
- Hier stinkt‘s.
- It stinks here.
- Ich hätte den Kühlschrank nicht ausmachen dürfen.
Er hat nach dem Urlaub so gestunken, dass ich kotzen musste. - I shouldn’t have turned off the fridge. After the vacation,
it stank so bad, I had to vomit.
By the way… there is actually a forth verb for sending out a certain smell and that is müffeln. It is not a good smell but it is not as strong as stinken. If you don’t hang up your laundry for to days it will start to müffeln. It’s not used that much but it might be useful as a friendly approach to telling your partner that a shower is due.
- Schatz, du müffelst ein bisschen.
- Honey, you‘re a little stinky.
But let’s move on.
Riechen is pretty neutral and you can combine it with good and bad smell.
- Ich bin wie ein Snack… meine Haar riecht nach/wie Erdbeeren, meine Füße nach Cheddar.
- I’m like a snack… my hair smells of/like strawberries, my feet of cheddar.
If it is used alone however, riechen has a negative note… kind of like to reek, although it is not as strong.
- Hier riecht’s.
- It‘s kinda smelly here.
Duften finally belongs to the word family of der Dunst (mist), der Dampf (steam) or English dust. So it’s about small particles in the air… like … say… perfume, right when you spray it. This old meaning is still present in the very colloquial verduften which is to piss off. I don’t know why duften turned out to be all positive but it did.
- Die Rosen duften.
- The roses are smelling good.
- In der Bäckerei hat es nach frischem Brot geduftet.
- In the bakery it smelled of fresh bred.
(context adds the positive aspect in English here)
Now, there are two main way to express how something smells….using nach and wie.
- Es riecht/duftet/stinkt wie/nach Zwiebeln
- It smells like/of onions.
Both are common but the wie is more of a direct comparison while nach is more about having notes or features of a smell.
- Der Kaffee riecht nach Schokolade.
This can mean that there are hints of chocolate in there, while wie would mean that it smells just like chocolate. It is not super strict though so in a lot of cases people use them synonymously.
All right.
Now, each of those verbs of course has a noun. For stinken it is der Gestank.
- Der Gestank ist nicht auszuhalten.
- The stench is unbearable (lit.)
I feel like Gestank is generally stronger than smell or even stench.
For riechen the noun is der Geruch.
- Ich habe eine guten Geruchssinn.
- I have a good sense of smell.
- ich will hier nicht essen. Hier ist ein komischer Geruch in der Luft.
- I don’t want to eat here. There’s a strange smell in the air.
For duften finally it is… no … not Geduft but simply der Duft.
- Puma – der neue Duft. Von Calvin Klein.
- Cougar- the new fragrance. By Calvin Klein.
Now you’re like “What a dumb name for a perfume. Cougars don’t particularly smell good”. But hey… they put all kinds of stuff into perfumes. Because it is about the Duftstoffe (scents/pheromones), not the pleasantness. A good mixture can get us quite “fired up” BECAUSE of the musk ox urin or whale poop inside. And in the wrong mixture even the smoothest vanilla or pine needle extract won’t compel us to go for first base.
And that brings us right to… the idioms.
Nose – idioms
On a semi-conscious level our sense of smell has a HUGE influence on our choice
of partners. So the following idiom is not too far fetched.
- Meine Freundin und mein Bruder können sich nicht riechen.
This doesn’t mean that they literally cannot smell each other. It means that they
really don’t get along.
- My girlfriend and my brother can’t stand each other.
And there are many more. A really common one for instance is
- die Nase voll haben von
which expresses that you’re fed up with something.
- Ich habe die Nase voll davon,
dass du immer meine Milch alle machst. - I’m sick of you finishing my milk all the time.
Actually… being sick often implies having the nose full, so maybe that’s where this comes from.
The next one is pretty easy to visualize.
- Der Dieb führt die Polizei an der Nase herum.
Leading someone around by the nose certainly means that you have a lot of control. And you embarrass the person. And those certainly match the translation
- The thief gives the police a go-around.
(He tricks them and lays out false traces and such)
The next one sounds even more painful…
- Meine Kinder tanzen mir den ganzen Tag auf der Nase herum.
Outch. But pain aside, dancing around on someones nose is somewhat disrespectful, and probably very annoying. Which is kind of close to the actual meaning… the dictionary suggested to act up on but I’d rather give a description.
- My kids don’t listen to me, they do what they want
and they don’t even try to hide it.
I don’t know how you’d say that in English.
The next one is also very visual…
- Du musst mir das nicht jeden Tag unter die Nase reiben,
dass meine Freundin gesagt hat, dass du aussiehst wie ein Model.
This literally means that we rub something under the nose of someone… so he or she can smell it all day and is constantly reminded of it.
- You don’t have to rub it in that my girlfriend said
that you look like a model.
Then there are a few that are based on the fact that the nose is in a somewhat prominent, forward position.
- Irgendwann wird Maria mal so richtig auf die Nase fallen
mit ihrem Getratsche. - Some day Maria will fall flat on her face
with her gab/gossiping.
- Zum Markt? Einfach immer der Nase nach.
- To the market? Just go straight. (lit.: Just [go] after your nose.) …
does the English “follow your nose” have the same meaning?
- Bei der Entwicklung von Elektroautos hat General Motors die Nase vorn.
- General motors has a clear edge / is the front runner in the development of electric cars.
All right.
All these idioms are in active use and there are quite a few more, but I have to go to the bank later to cash that GM-check I just got.
So I only want to give you one more. A really really deep insight on the human bod.. I mean nature. Something that transcends all the other mundane sayings. Sit back, relax, let the music take you away and then read…
Great
war so interessant ,Ich möchte mich an dieser Stelle für Ihre Hilfe und Mühe bedanken und verbleibe.
Wie verbleibst du denn :)…. bei “verbleiben” brauch’ man immer noch irgendwas, sonst klingt es nicht komplett.
Und es ist ziemlich förmlich. Und du kannst ruhig “du” sagen.
dann wie kann ich die komplett machen bzw. besser ,wenn ich förmlich schreiben zb.in den Briefe.
LG
Also in Briefen sagt man meistens:
– Ich verbleibe mit freundlichen Grüßen
ansonsten gib mal bei Google “ich verbleibe” ein und warte, was Auto-complete dir vorschlägt. Das gibt ein ganz gutes Bild davon, was benutzt wird.
prima , dankeschön !
Hi, how do you say “some” in German? I’ve seen was, etwas, but I’m sure there are other ways. When do I use which?
That totally depends on the context… or better, on what the function of “some” is. Take a look at the posts on “irgend” and “paar”… that should be a good start
http://yourdailygerman.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/meaning-irgend/
http://yourdailygerman.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/meaning-paar/
Absolutely fantastic use of the world “piddly”, one just doesn’t see that often enough in print. Love it! As always, a great lesson :)
Hey, freut mich echt ,dass du noch dabei bist :)
Hehe, dabei bin ich immer noch :) War nur in der letzen Zeit beschäftigt. Aufenthaltstiteln brauchen jede Menge Geduld. Freue mich schon auf die versäumte Posts! LG, Sarah
Oh ich bin voll neidisch. Behördensachen im Sommer ist das Beste :D
Behördensprachen sind echt beneidenswert, aber ich werde mich überraschen lassen. Vielleicht klappt alles trotz ein paar Unannehmlichkeiten ;) In jedem Fall haben wir in Graz keinen echten Sommer gehabt. Dreieinhalb Stunden Wartezeit ist nicht so schlimm wenn es so schön regnet…schau’n ma mal :)
Great article. The idioms are always fun to learn. No one has mentioned one of the most common “nose” idioms in the US… “Brown nose”. That is how you refer to someone who, usually insincerely, ingratiates himself to another person. For example, the student in class who, at the end of the hour, says to the teacher, “teacher, teacher, you forgot to give us our homework!” All the other students say, “f***ing brown nose!” Not a very nice expression, but common as hell! Someone who “kisses ass” is a “brown nose”…
Ha… while reading your comment I was trying to figure out why it’s “brown nose” and then it all fell into place :).
In German we’d say “Schleimer” or “Streber” for people who do this. And the verb would be
– Ich schleime mich bei der Lehrerin ein.
And the stronger version, which is more for the working environment is “Arschkriecher” and “in den Arsch kriechen”
I love “Schleimer”… it just sounds like an insulting word! ;-)
And yes, you’re absolutely right about the connotation of “brown nose”… not a very attractive image, but it is surprisingly common in its everyday use!
Awesome, thank you!
Awesome, thank you!
Thank you, reading this has given me much pleasure. I am in the process of relearning the German I knew as a child.
Alles gutte Kathy
Sent from my iPhone
>
Viel Erfolg :)
Thinking of idioms, in English something can be “right under your nose”, meaning that it’s really obvious or conspicuous. There’s also a phrase “to cut off your nose to spite your face”, which is (I think) someone overreacting and doing something that ends up harming them-self instead of who they’re angry with. For some reason that’s a really difficult phrase to explain… :/ Not sure if there’s an equivalent saying in German.
Oh yeah, we have that one as well… sometimes with “vor” and sometimes with “unter”
– Sie hat quasi vor seiner Nase seine Mails gelesen.
– She read his mails pretty much under his nose. (is that the right use?)
As for the other one… the only thing I can think of is
– sich ins Knie schießen
but I suspect it’s not exactly the same.
At Linguee.com I found “sich ins eigene Fleisch schneiden” as a translation…
http://www.linguee.de/englisch-deutsch/uebersetzung/cut+off+your+nose+to+spite+your+face.html
“Sich ins eigene Fleisch schneiden” seems closer. The original explanation was right. For “sich ins Knie schießen,” we aim a bit lower: it’s “shoot oneself in the foot.”
There is a small typo in the sentence “The stench is unbareable (lit.)”, the adjective should be “unbearable”.
Danke…
Ich freue mich darüber, dass du ein paar idiomatische Phrasen hinzugefügt hast. Mir ist das ganz nützlich!
Mehr bitte!
Mein Freund hat mir gesagt, dass es auf Deutsch sehr wenige Idioms gibt… Stimmt das?
Wie soll ich das denn beantworten :D… “wenig” ist immer relativ. Wahrscheinlich gibt es weniger als zum Beispiel in Italienisch aber “sehr wenig”…ne, ich glaube nicht. Es gibt schon genug…
Offtopic: ich habe auf der Webseite vom Goethe-Institut einige Übungen nachgeschaut und mir ist diese Formulierung aufgefallen:
“Welche Ereignisse gehören deines Wissens nach außerdem noch in das Deutschland der 50er Jahre?”
Das mag in der Umgangssprache akzeptabel sein, das GI sollte ja aber Standarddeutsch unterrichten – vielleicht auch mit umgangssprachlichen Elementen, doch nicht in Aufgabenstellungen!
Das ist schon Standarddeutsch… nur nicht sehr stilsicher, will ich mal sagen. Das Goethe-Institut kocht auch nur mit Praktiken…ähm Wasser. Womit hast du denn genau ein Problem? Mit dem “in das Deutschland”?
“Meines Wissens nach” ;)
meines Wissens
Worttrennung:
mei|nes Wis|sens
Abkürzung:
m. W.
Beispiel:
falsch meines Wissens nach
Äh… hilf mir mal auf den Sprung… ich versteh’s oder seh’s nicht :)
“Welche Ereignisse gehören ***deines Wissens nach*** ”
Muss in dem Fall entweder “deines Wissens” (Genitiv) oder “deinem Wissen nach” (Dativ) sein. Die gemischte Form (“deines Wissens nach”) gilt nur umgangssprachlich und soll nicht in einer “offiziellen” Aufgabenstellung vom GI auftauchen…
Oh… wow!!! Das hätte ich nie nie nie gemerkt. ich glaube, das weiß keiner. Vielleicht sollte man “meines Wissens nach” lieber als fixe Phrase sehen. ich zumindest finde “meinem Wissen nach” hyper mega turbo unnatürlich … quasi falsch. ich wäre echt irritiert, wenn es jemand sagte (mal ein deplatzierter “echter” Subjektiv) :)
Kann sein, ich habe das nur wegen der Grammatik angeführt. Dann einfach “deines Wissens”. Nachdem Standardwerke das + “nach” als eine fixe Phrase bezeichnet haben, werden erst dann Bildungseinrichtungen wie GI so was ganz offiziell benutzen dürfen. Bis dahin ist es aber von ihnen erwartet, dass sie in ihren Formulierungen (z.B. in Aufgabenstellungen) den Standardwerken folgen. Also, nichts “Einzigstes”, kein doppeltes Perfekt und keine weil-Hauptsätze. ;)
(Das ist nicht mit Übungen zu verwechseln, deren Inhalte auch umgangssprachlich sein können (und sollen), da es offensichtlich wichtig ist, auch die Sprache wie sie ist kennenzulernen.)
Auf welches Standardwerk beziehst du dich denn? Guck mal hier:
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=meines+Wissens+nach%2C+meinem+Wissen+nach&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=20&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cmeines%20Wissens%20nach%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cmeinem%20Wissen%20nach%3B%2Cc0
Ich würdemal sagen “meines Wissens nach” ist einfach wie es ist, und war schon immer so.
My favorite nose expression in English is the word “nosey” which means, roughly “interested in finding out what other people are doing, especially when someone is trying to hide something”. As in, “I wanted to surprise you with a new flowerbed, but our nosey neighbor asked you about all the bags of dirt in the driveway and now the surprise is lost.”
This “nosey” word gets used on news reporters sometimes… but usually just on people who gossip.
There’s another expression, “She has a nose for news”, which is used to describe a reporter who is good at finding news stories.
“She has her nose in the air” describes a woman who is not very friendly because she believes that she is better than most people, because she is higher-class or better-educated than they are. (It could be used for a man too, it’s just a woman in my example.)
“She has her nose in the air” → hochnäsig
Yeah… I really like “nosey” too. German sadly doesn’t have a direct counter part but there are some idioms with the same idea
– Ich stecke meine Nase in Sachen, die mich nichts angehen.
– I stick (is that idiomatic?) my nose into things that are none of my business.
– Der Mann schnüffelt in ihrem Schreibtisch herum.
– The man snoops (rel sniffles) around her desk.
For “to have a nose for” we say
– Ich habe ein Näschen für
and as the other comment said… “hochnäsig” is an adjective that describes having the nose up in the air :)
Ich habe eine Frage über die hinter folgendem Satz steckende Grammatik:
“Der neue macht nichts ausser Kaffee trinken und in der Nase bohren.”
Wieso liegt hier kein erweiterter Infinitiv vor, also kein “zu”? Sind “Kafee trinken” und “in der Nase bohren” quasi als zusammengesetzte Substantive anzusehen?
“Der neue macht nichts ausser Kaffeetrinken und In-Der-Nase-Bohren.” ?
Ja genau… das müssten wohl Substantive sein… aber da man das nicht schreibt, weil keiner weiß oder sagen kann, wie man das schreiben sollte (Zusammen, Bindestriche, einfach hintereinander) und, was noch wichtiger ist, auch nicht fühlt (es fühlt sich verbog an)wird sich die Grammatik da über kurz oder lang anpassen :)
Ginge “außer zu” hier?
Ginge wohl schon, aber für mich klingt es holprig… ein bisschen wie ein Fehler. Das Problem ist ja wirklich nur die Schreibweise, nicht die Konstruktion an sich.
I think because they are not verbs but nouns?
They should be, but no one cares because we don’t know how to spell it.
Naja, in Wiki gibts sogar “In-der-Nase-Bohren” als Substantiv :D
Ja, aber wenn man damit anfängt, dann gibt’s auch “Sich-das-Fett-von-den-Fingern-Lecken” und alles andere… die Deutsche Sprache hat da einfach einen “Glitch” :)
Living for this article! Keep’em coming…
Mach’ ich :)
Hey there,
I love this blog! A few comments from my American perspective:
For the example with the police and the theif…we have the expression, “to lead someone around by the nose.” For this, I am more apt to think of a friend, romatic or not, who always has the upper hand in a relationship and has the other person doing whatever the friend wants.
For APC’s comment, I would have to say that an answer to “How do I get to…” Would be “follow your nose” and in that sense, I would think the person meant the place I want to go to is straight ahead. For “trust your instincts” I would say “follow your heart” not your nose. But maybe APC is from a different country or area.
On Igorsrb’s comment, we also say that someone “has a nose for it” meaning they have an instinct for something.
Another American expression that we have is “It’s as plain as the nose on your face.” This means the explaination is very simple, something that anyone should be able to understand or figure out for him or herself.
Ah, see, as an American I totally think that “Follow your nose” is synonymous with trust your instinct. Toucan Sam wasn’t just going straight when he was chasing those Fruitloops. (Yeah, I get he was actually following his nose, but the whole joke wouldn’t have made sense if the idea was just to go straight.)
I’m also an American, and the phrase “follow your nose” means to me literally follow the smell of something to its origin. Maybe it’s a regional thing?
This is how I would understand it, or maybe in context meaning “if you go a little farther it’s obvious where it is” (though again, I’d assume they actually meant because of the smell).
Cool, vielen Dank for the additions :). In German, people also have a nose for things… well… actually people have a tiny nose for things… because most of the time the idiom goes like this
– Jemand hat ein Näschen für etwas.
Einer frolicher Schluss über Nase ! “Johannes” eines mannes !! Ist es richitig über die Frauen ?
Ahmad , bis bald .
Was meinst du mit “Ist es richtig über die Frauen?”… Frauen haben mit dem Johannes auf jeden Fall was zu tun :D
Sprechen wir über Bach? (JS Bach)
Er hatte viele Kinder, aber ich glaube, dass er nur eine einzige Frau hatte…
Mozart andererseits… mit den Frauen viel zu tun…
Haha… nein… der Johannes eines Mannes ist sein kleiner Mann.
Awesome article, as always. I would say that “follow your nose” doesn’t mean to go straight. It means to trust your instincts. And sometimes it literally means to follow where the smell is taking you. The fruit loops commercial comes to mind: “Follow your nose. It always knows.”
I wasn’t quite sure about the German version either… part of me said “It’s an instinct thing” while the other part was like “IT’s a straight ahead thing”. So maybe it’s both, but at least for me, it’s more straight ahead.
Nice article! I was most interested by those idioms with the word ‘Nase’, it’s pretty interesting to state how cultures see the same thing differently :-)
Der Dieb führt die Polizei an der Nase herum. – we say to pull someone’s nose, but the meaning is the same
Unter die Nase reiben – same, but we rub auf, not unter
die Nase voll haben von – have this one as well
Here are a few common in Serbian that don’t have a German counterpart:
Ich habe die Nase für…. In Serbian is used to describe a skill of being good at finding/discovering something (I have the nose for business = I can recognIze a good deal when I see one; How did you know that girl is single? I have the nose for those things)
Nicht sehen weiter als die Nase – not being able to see the bigger picture; being small-minded; not realizing what is obvious to everyone else
Es ist nach oben zu meiner Nase gekommen – It came up to (the level of) my nose – reaching a critical point. For example: It came to my nose with exams = I haven’t took any, and now there are way to many of them and I MUST do something about it immediately – otherwise I’ll be in trouble)
Die Nase erhöhen – Rising nose up – to act snobby and pretentious
Thanks for all those :)… it’s great to see what other languages do with it. I bet there are some real gems out there somewhere.
Now… we do say
– Ich habe ein Näschen für etwas.
in German, too… no idea why it has to be a small nose :).
For the “small minded” one I couldn’t think of anything remotely nose-related … in fact, all that came to mind was the obvious “kurzsichtig”… or wait… actually, we say “ein Brett vor dem Kopf haben” (have a board in front of your head) which would limit the view quite a bit. But the meaning is more “dumb” than “short sighted”.
For the critical point there is the really really weird
– Unterkante Oberlippe
People also say
– Es steht mir bis hier.
while holding their hand flat in front of their forehead. But this is more about being fed up with something, so it wouldn’t fit the exam example.
Es steht mir bis hier – we have a very similar one, only in past tense – Es hat mir bis hier gekommen (while drawing an ivisibile line over the forehead).
There is also die Adlernase and its use is very common (someone ho has that kind of nose is also called the person with Roman profile).
Speaking of it, there is a thing people (ladies usually) do for fun – foreteling the future from the black (turkish) coffee draff left at the bottom of the cup. Part of it is making a wish while pressing a fingertip somewhere in the cup, which makes a draff mark out of which fortuneteller alegedly can see will there be a new love, gain or a sale in a local mall. Anyway, for someone wth die Hakennase is said he or she can sting a wish with it :)
And there is also another one – Kakav nos, takav ponos —–> like nose, like pride. Es kommt aus(von?) dem Glaube dass die grosse Nase haben weist hin dass etwas anderes auch grosses ist :)
Offtopic – kids are climbing to the parents’ heads, and the desperate ones usually complains with “you have eaten my liver!” (meaning that’s how bad you behave yourself. I have no idea where it came from).
And for the end, here’s an interesting link from DW:
http://www.dw.de/13-words-germans-think-are-english/g-17619951
Hahaha… if I get it correctly, that’s exactly what the Johannes-idiom is saying.
I knew about coffee draff reading but I wasn’t aware of the finger part.
My dictionary (Leo) suggested coffee grounds by the way… not that I want to be a “Naseweis” … a “Naseweis” is a smart ass in the more negative sense of the word :).
Oh, do you know the fairy tale “Zwerg Nase”? It’s about a guy who gets a GIANT nose from an evil witch. It’s fairly creepy so it might be a Grimm fairytale :)
Oh… I thought “Messie” was Latin American X)
DW says it’s English. I don’t mind my English being corrected as well. After all there is always a room for improvement of it too :) Speaking of the Márchen, i haven’t heard of it before, but I’ve look up and Wikipedia says it’s not Grimm’s :)
Btw – I just got for present book called “Dirty German” :) so far, sooooo interesting :D
I took a look at it and it does looks fun… although I don’t like the pretentious cop bashing they do :)… anyway, for anyone interested, you can have a thorough look inside at our favorite evil online retailer ;)