Hello everyone,
and welcome to our German Word of the Day. This time we’ll have a look at the meaning of
winken
Winken looks a lot like to wink. But that’s deceiving as this old Goethe** poem tells us.
Under the tree, I sit,
and I think:
“Winken” and “to wink”
are like red and pink.
(**: poem might not have been written by Goethe;
Goethe might have actually hated it)
What the poem is trying to tell us is this: red and pink are somewhat similar colors. Yet, a red shirt and a pink shirt are TOTALLY different things… fashion-wise. Trust me. I’m an expert.
And it’s the same with winken and to wink. They have similar ideas and yet they are completely different things translation-wise. So, today we’ll find out what winken is why it is so similar to to wink. And that’s not all. Winken comes of course complete with a bunch of prefix versions and as if that isn’t enough already there are some cool, useful related words in family. Curious yet? Moderately? Well, that’s curious enough. In we dive :)
Winken and to wink are NEVER translations for each other. But on a more abstract level they’re the about the same thing: signalling someone. But while winking is done with the eye, winken is done with the hand. Or a tissue. Or a fence post. The last one is more of an idiom though. Anyway, some of you might have guessed it… winken means to wave.
- Das Kind winkt dem Schiff.
- The kid waves at the ship.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Winken is a bit more narrow than to wave in so far as that it doesn’t work for thing just waving by themselves. A flag waving in the wind for example. That would be flattern (very agitated) or wehen (slow movements) or something. Winken really has this focus on signalling and it’s done by people. Celebrities, police, lovers, friends, and goals. Wait, goals?
Yeah, that’s the one more abstract use. Goals and prices can also “wave” at you.
- Den Siegern winken ein Verwöhnwochenende am Meer und eine neue Kamera.
- Lit.: To the winners are waving a blah-weekend and a camera.
- A weekend of relaxation at the sea and a new camera beckon to the winners.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Auf dem Gipfel winken dem Kletterer ein deftiger Eintopf und ein Grog.
- On the mountain top a hearty stew and a grog are awaiting the climber.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Phrasings like these are SUPER common in brochures and flyers probably because the image is kind of cute. Just think of the stew on top of the hill waving at you like “Hey, I’m up heeeere. Come and eat me!”.
Cool, so winken is about waving at someone in order to signal something. And that idea is present in all the related words.
The prefix versions are all pretty straight forward. Zuwinken is basically just a more direct sounding version of winken.
- Ich habe dir zugewunken
- I waved at you
(more idiomatic and down to earth sounding than “Ich winke dir”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Then, there is a whole bunch of prefix versions that specify a direction that the waving communicates. Like… rüberwinken is “to signal someone by a waving gesture to cross something”, raufwinken is “to signal with a waving gesture to come up on something”. I think you get the idea.
- Der Polizist winkt den Raser raus.
- The police man signals the speeder to pull over.
Lit.: The police man waves the speeder out. - Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Zollbeamte hat uns einfach durchgewunken.
- The customs official just waved us through.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And last but not least, there is abwinken. Literally, it means to wave off, so it’s kind of about signalling someone to stop. In practice it’s used in a general sense of expressing disinterest or saying no, be it by actually waving or by saying “no thanks”. And there’s the very common expression bis zum Abwinken, which is a positive sounding way to say that there is more than enough of something.
- Thomas bietet Maria etwas von seiner selbst gemachten Suppe an, aber sie winkt dankend ab.
- Thomas offers Maria some of his homemade soup but she just passes on it.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Hier gibt es Bier bis zum Abwinken.
- We have more beer than you can drink/more than enough beer.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
The noun for winken is der Wink which is something between a signal and a hint. And here we meet the fence post again :)
- “Ich suche ein Diätbuch für meine Freundin zum Geburtstag”
“Oh… so als Wink mit dem Zaunpfahl oder was”
“Haha, genau.” - “I’m looking for a diet book for my girl friend.
“Oh, like a not so subtle hint, or what?”
“Haha, exactly.”
(the idiom is based on the idea that waving with a fence post is very “visible”)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Dass Maria die Bahn verpasst hat, war ein Wink des Schicksals. Sie ist dann nämlich gelaufen und da hat sie dann Thomas getroffen.
- The fact that Maria missed the train was a twist of fate/ a sign of fortune. Because she decided to walk, and that’s when she met Thomas.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Both these idioms are very common and the Wink in Wink des Schicksals we actually has some overlap with the English to wink. Like.. fate makes the train leave and then turns to Maria like “Come on, you REALLY should walk. Who knows. There might be a surprise for you ;)”.
And that brings us to the origin of winken and the question we can ask about all false friends: Why? How the heck did it happen?
Who messed with the meaning?
It all started with the ungodly ancient Indo-European root weng and weng was about bending. The Germanic languages kept the root but they shifted the meaning toward put at an angle/to tilt. And that’s pretty much what you do when you wave your hand. You repeatedly put it at angles. That’s how the idea of signalling came in and while German stayed with the hands, English eventually shifted to eye signals because… reasons. And bam, a new pair of false friends was born. Thanks a lot English. Well, okay, there are worse pairs, I guess.
Anyway, now before we wrap up, let’s look at two other useful German that comes from the same family. And those two are really all about the core idea of “at an angle”. The first one is der Winkel which is the German word for angle, the second one is the verb wanken, and wanken is what you’ll do after you put a few pints “at an angle”…. waving from left to right :).
- Thomas wankt nach hause.
- Thomas stumbles home. (walks home waving from left to right)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Turm wankt im Wind.
- The tower sways/teeters in the wind.
(does teeter sound too light weight?)
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Der Konzern gerät durch die Abgasaffaire ins Wanken.
- The corporation starts to totter because of emission-gate.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- 90° sind ein rechter Winkel.
- 90° are called right angle.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
Wanken is also part of the word wankelmütig which is an adjective for people who often switch their choices. And if you’re a car nerd you might have heard of the Wankel engine… but I don’t really know what that is. The word Winkel is also often used in context of (remote) corners, and there’s even the word anwinkeln which means to put at an angle or, in context of body parts, to bend.
- Bei Gewitter versteckt sich die Katze im hintersten Winkel der Wohnung.
- When there’s a thunder storm the cat hides in the most remote corner of the flat.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
- Maria winkelt den Arm an.
- Maria bends her arm.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
And I think that’s it for today. Hooray. This was our German Word of the Day winken. It’s NOT to wink, instead it means to wave in sense of waving at someone and it’s based on the idea of putting your hand at an angle.
As alw… what? .. oh you’re right, I keep saying that winken doesn’t mean to wink. The German word for to wink is zuzwinkern
- Thomas zwinkert Maria zu.
- Thomas winks at Maria.
- Practice pronunciation – click once to start recording and again to stop
As always, check out the vocab for a few more words and of course if you have any questions or suggestions you can leave me a comment. I hope you liked it, see you next time and …winke winke.
(This is a very childish way to say good bye… don’t use it with colleagues, bosses or tinder dates :)
** vocab **
winken + Dat. – wave (at someone)
zuwinken + Dat. – wave at someone (more direct sounding, less literary)
rauswinken – signal to pull over
hereinwinken – signal to come in
(…)
abwinken – express disinterest/say no
bis zum Abwinken – more than enough, galore
der Wink – the hint, the signal
der Wink des Schicksals – twist of fate, wave of fortune (always used for positive twists)
Wink mit dem Zaunpfahl – an overly obvious hint
das Winkelement – official term of the former Eastern German Republic for little flag that people had to want to wave with at parades. No wonder the state didn’t last… inventing words like this :) (here’s a picture)
die Winkekatze – Maneki-neko, waving cat, welcome cat… German has only one word for it
der Winkel – the angle, also: corner (usually for remote corners)
der Schlupfwinkel – a small retreat
der Winkelzug – the dodge, the shady move (often in context of lawyers)
spitzwinklig – acute-angled
stumpfwinklig – obtuse-angled
der Winkelmesser – goniometer, protractor
anwinkeln – bend (standard word for arms and legs)
wanken – wave from left to right (drunk people, buildings, governments, also: convictions etc)
wankelmütig – fickle, inconsistent ( lit: of a “wavy” mood)
der Wankelmotor – Wankel engine, rotary engine
flattern – flutter, wave (by itself)
wehen – blow (for wind), wave (slowly)
great post as always! I’m definitely getting a subscription this week.
just one error in the English translation of rechter Winkel. it should be ‘right angle’ not square angle
Vielen Dank :)!!
Since I can’t figure out how to add your vocab to Anki automatically by clicking the link, I add it manually, which allows me to look stuff up.
So I looked up the past tense of durchwinken and look what I found and wonder what you think of it.
Das Verb durchwinken hat die Bedeutung »jemandem mit Winkzeichen signalisieren, zu passieren« – etwa an einer Grenze oder Absperrung. Standardsprachlich ist als 2. Partizip nur durchgewinkt richtig. Die Form »durchgewunken« ist in den Wörterbüchern Duden und Wahrig mittlerweile aber auch verzeichnet, jedoch als »umgangssprachlich« ausgewiesen.
I have to manually approve access to the Anki decks and I haven’t been in my mails for a few days, so I didn’t see yours :).
As for “durchwinken”, what exactly are you asking? I don’t remember what I said in the article to be honest. The definition from the Wörterbuch is fine.
About the Wankel-motor: it was invented by one Felix Wankel (1902-1988) from Germany. But maybe his family name’s etymology has to do with wanken (he was born in a wine-growing district ;-)
Please do a Word of the Day feauture on ‘dran,’ I am having a hard time with this one as it seems to be used so many different ways. Please and thank you! :)
Yeah, I was thinking about doing “drauf” some time ago and “dran” is a good one too. Part of many expressions.
Another question – Duden (and LEO) have “winken / winkte / gewinkt” as the “proper” or preferred forms (Duden lists “gewunken” as “auch häufig”). Does anybody actually say “(zu)gewinkt” or is that one of those things where the dictionaries haven’t caught up with reality? (Like American English “sneak / sneaked” – everybody I know would say “snuck” for the simple past and participle.)
Ha… I recently said “gewinkt” but immediately after it did feel a bit childish. I think if I had to say which version is the original and correct one I’d say “gewunken” and I’m surprised to see that Duden lists “gewinkt”. I bet there are lots of discussions among native speakers as to why one or the other version is heresy :)
Unlike many German verbs, that originally had been strong and then lost the irregular past tense forms, winken developed its old-sounding past forms quite late, the original one being winkte and gewinkt.
Thanks for teaching me a new English word: goniometer! BTW, protrector should be protractor, with an A.
I was wondering about “goniometer”… is there another, less scientific sounding word or is that how it’s called in school?
So you would use zuwinken in everyday conversations as opposed to just winken (just in writing/stories)?
For bis zum Abwinken maybe “more than you could shake a stick at”? “There was more food at the wedding than you could shake a stick at.” Although personally I’d just say “more xyz than you could ever drink/eat/want/etc.”
Hmm… if one person waves at one other person, a star at a fan for instance, I would use “zuwinken”. If the star is just waving at the crowd indiscriminately I’d go for “winken”. Same for kids waving at trains and boats… oh and animals. “zuwinken” kind of implies that the wave is perceived and acknowledged. But those are really just nuances and might just be my own idiosyncracies
– Den Siegern winken ein Verwöhnwochenende am Meer und eine neue Kamera.
– Lit.: To the winners are waving a blah-weekend and a camera.
– The winners can look forward to a weekend of relaxation and wellness at the Sea as well as to a new camera.
For this meaning, “beckon” is a pretty perfect translation: “A weekend of relaxation…and a new camera beckon to the winners.”
– Der Turm wankt im Wind.
– The tower teeters in the wind.
(does teeter sound too light weight?)
I don’t think it sounds too light, but it definitely does sound like the tower is in serious danger of actually falling. “Sway” would probably be better if it’s just a normal degree of movement.
– Hier gibt es Bier bis zum Abwinken.
– We have beer ad nauseum/more beer than you can drink.
Ad nauseam is definitely not positive sounding – although it’s probably literally accurate in an all-the-beer-you-can-drink setting…
Cool, I didn’t know English had such a similar phrasing (“beckon” ). As for the tower example… now that I think about it, I actually feel like “schwanken” would be more idiomatic.Anyway, I think “wanken” is somewhere between “sway” and “teeter”… so not on the verge of falling but falling is definite option.
Do you have an idiomatic idea for “bis zum Abwinken”? Or is “more than enough” the only option that fits the tone?
By the way… I looked up the etymology of “to beckon” and I found the word “beck”. And now I am wondering whether “Beck’s” has anything to do with that :)
I’ve been trying to think of something that matches well… I think “all you can eat/drink/whatever” is about as close as you can get with an idiomatic phrase. “All you can handle” might work too. But I’ll have to keep thinking about it.
Yeah, I’d say something like: “We have all the beer you can drink.” Or “We’ll be swimming in beer.” Or “The beer will flow like water.” Or “We’ve got beer galore!” I always like a good galore.
“More X than you could possibly Y” would be the generic phrase for me. But for beer in particular, “enough beer to sink the navy” is surfacing from somewhere in my brain. Perhaps more common: “enough food to feed an army”.
The beer will flow like wine, and beautiful women will flock like the salmon of Capistrano…
By the way, I assume the English word “wave” (if it’s a Germanic root, and it kind of feels like one from the spelling) would have a German cognate something like “waben”. Is there such a verb? I don’t remember ever seeing it…
Good intuition. “waben” doesn’t exist but “wabern” does. It stands for the wavy movement of a fog for example. There’s also the noun “die Wabe” which means honeycomb (of bees). It’s based on the verb “weben” which is the German version of “to weave”. They’re all one family. The idea of weaving is moving the little weavers shuttle back and forth. Oh and “web” of course also belongs here.
The soup would be “homemade”, not “self made”. Unless it really made itself. That would be really weird, though, self-organizing soup.
For the overall translation, you could probably get away with something like:
“Thomas offers Maria some of his homemade soup but she passes on it.”
or
“Thomas offers Maria some of his homemade soup but she takes a pass on it.”
Oh, and you wouldn’t “wave a fee”, but rather “waive a fee”.
Yeah, you really only see “self-made” with reference to people – “a self-made millionaire.”
“To pass on something” is a good equivalent, I think. I wouldn’t find “to decline (politely)” too formal either, but it’s certainly less casual-sounding.
Haha… that’s the next step after smart homes… smart foods, foods that cook themselves. Every steak has a little chip implanted that communicates over the cloud with the pan, the oven and your car so you get a perfect medium rare right when you walk in the door :).
Thanks for the corrections. “to pass on it” seems like a great match.
Food can be “self-prepared”, but I think I would say that means pretty much the same as “homemade”.
re the unwanted soup, I’d perhaps say Maria “waved it away”, which is idiomatic in English. Though it’s not an exact translation for “declined” as it’s informal, e.g. family, close friend or a superior-subordinate relationship (e.g. servant). Does the German have this same informality?
e.g. “The waiter handed him a menu; he waved it away”
“He waved away the whiskeybottle with a smile.” (a quote – yes for some reason “whiskeybottle” is one word; very German :) )
Also I would use “wave someone away” to mean (a) indicating to someone (subordinate) they can leave; (b) indicating to people to physically move away. e.g. “He waved away the waiter” Basically like “shoo them away”, though to me “shoo” implies more vigorous movement.
To me, all these imply an actual hand gesture in addition to whatever you might verbalise. And I guess the more gesture and less verbal, the less respect you’d be showing someone.
I’d agree that “waving away” is perfectly idiomatic, though as you say, you can’t really do it purely verbally (is that the case in German?), and I think that unless you specify otherwise, it tends to sound a little bit condescending or at least less positive in connotation than it sounds like abwinken might be, especially “wave someone away.”
Just out of curiosity, do you just mean that “whiskeybottle” is actually written as one word in the quote you cite or that you’d also write it that way?
“Abwinken” is used by newspapers in contexts of people declining posts, so it can definitely be done purely verbally.
Just saw this, sorry for late reply – the former: whiskeybottle was written as one word in the quote, and no I wouldn’t write it that way myself. It was fiction; I didn’t investigate but maybe it was old or being poetic or something.
“abwinken” definitely works in more formal contexts too. It’s used by newspapers a lot in context of people passing on posts.. like…
– Ihm wurde der Vorstandsvorsitz angeboten, aber er winkte nur ab.
There’s a crucial difference to “to wave something away” and that is “abwinken” cannot take a direct object. You cannot “abwinken”something. So none of the examples you gave could be translated verbatim.
As for the notion of signalling someone to leave…”fortwinken” and “wegwinken” would be generic options, I guess, but I think I wouldn’t use them. “winken” has a bit of a vibe of “come toward the waving person”, not much, but that clashes a bit with the away-part. I think in such a case I would use a longer phrasing like:
– Mit einer Handbewegung bedeute ich dem Kellner zu gehen.
That’s very scripted though. Maybe just “wegschicken”
I really think your next book should be ‘The Continuing Adventures of Thomas and Maria’ :)
I’m at it. I’m aiming for a mixture of Big Bang Theory and Shades of Grey.
Wankelmotor, that wasn’t quite expected
I know :). I love it when I find one of these little connections.