this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
262 points (100.0% liked)

Today I Learned

120 readers
1 users here now

Post direct links to interesting facts that you just learned about today

founded 1 year ago
 
top 19 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] SushiLibre@kbin.sh 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

@ivanafterall „Arschgeige“ would also be very suitable in this case.

It literally means Ass-Violin

[–] CrankyCritter@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't understand this insult but I love it all the same. Thanks for this new weapon in my comeback arsenal.

[–] SushiLibre@kbin.sh 2 points 1 year ago

German is so underappreciated when it comes to insults. But there are some really great ones

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Germans really do have a word for everything, don't they?

[–] crossmr@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They don't.. it's just the way that german words are constructed. In English we'd call it a phrase, but in german they don't need the spaces, so everyone just calls it a 'word'. When these kinds of things used to be posted on TIL all the time before we banned them, at least half of them would get a flood of germans all chiming in to say 'While it is grammatically correct, no one ever uses that word'.

[–] ivanafterall@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I admit I just wanted an excuse to point out how uniquely punchable Steve Huffman's face is.

[–] Swiggles@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Compound words are for the most parts just regular words. This is actually an example of a well known word which has a (slightly) different meaning than the individual words.

Same as many English compound words, e.g. grandparents, airport...

It is not just a quirk in the German language as you can see, although it probably originates from there. While it is possible to construct words, most used compound words are well agreed on (same as in English) and not as made up, as you make it seem.

[–] crossmr@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These are not compound words. These are noun phrases. Noun phrases in german have no spaces like they do in english. These aren't remotely like grandparent or airport.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Noun phrases are things like "of the red tree": Whole phrases that can be referred to by "this", "it", etc. Backpfeifengesicht ist very much a compound noun, "punchable face" is not, "schlagbares Gesicht" neither, both are noun phrases. "cuffearface" is a compound noun, no matter how many spaces and hyphens you add to it.

[–] crossmr@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

In English there is a clear difference between a compound word and a noun phrase. A compound word is a word that has two other words making up its parts which has a slightly, or completely different meaning from its parts. A noun phrase is a collection of words that make up an item, like 'I found the owner of the dog' 'the owner of the dog' is a noun phrase. In German it is, likely, expressed as a single unbroken string. It doesn't exactly mean that the Germans have a word for 'the owner of the dog' it's just the way they write noun phrases.

[–] anselmschueler@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It actually means “slap-to-the-cheek face”

[–] abcd@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

You could also translate it to "bake-pipes face"

I'll see myself out ;)

[–] NastyNipple@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] jeebus@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Narcissistic prick.

[–] InformalTrifle@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Word was invented for Max Verstappen

[–] wheeljack@retro.pizza 4 points 1 year ago

I thought that was Bad Luck Brian at first.

Sucks for Brian.

[–] glvss@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago

Animals As Leaders introduced this word to me.

also fuck spez

[–] zitronen@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Watschengesicht in the South.

load more comments
view more: next ›