Word origins

• OwlglassTill Eulenspiegel, a prankster character in German folklore, depicted with a pet owl and a mirror in his hand.
• owndomProperty.
• Palatinate ForestA low-mountain region, located in the Palatinate in Rhineland-Palatinate, in southwestern Germany.
• panpsychismThe belief that all matter is conscious in some form.
• patchwork familyA blended family; a stepfamily.
• pecking orderThe natural ranking of social status and dominance occurring in a group of birds.
• penis envyThe unconscious desire of a woman to possess a penis.
• peppernutThe edible fruit of a pepperwood tree (California laurel).
• personal unionThe situation of two or more states sharing the same monarch, usually also with shared dynastic succession.
• Phrygian capA soft, close-fitting conical cap with the top bent forward, represented in Greek and Roman art as worn by ancient Phrygians, and later associated with the Roman liberty cap.
• pig dogA dog bred to hunt wild pigs, typically based on breeds such as Staffordshire Terrier and English Bull Terrier.
• power politicsA form of international relations in which sovereign entities protect their own interests by threatening one another with military, economic or political aggression.
• Pre-GreekOf or relating to such a language or its speakers.
• primal sceneIn Freudian theory, the first time a child witnesses (and understands) his or her parents copulating.
• prince-primateThe archbishop of Esztergom in Hungary.
• private docentAn associate professor (in a university) who has obtained a doctorate, written a habilitation thesis and given a lecture in the hope of becoming a full professor.
• productive forcesThe combination of means of labour and labour power which together with certain relations of production form a historically specific mode of production.
• puddle-houndSynonym of poodle.
• pyknicshort and stout; endomorphic
• Pyramid TextsA corpus of ancient Egyptian funerary texts of the Old Kingdom consisting of spells to assist the journey of the dead king into the afterlife, carved on pyramid walls and sarcophagi.
• qualitative leapA qualitative, non-gradual change resulting from a quantitatively minor change.
• quarter noteA musical note one beat long in 4/4 time.
• race feelingLove of one's own race, or hatred of other races.
• racial hygieneAn approach to eugenics in Nazi ideology which sought to prevent the supposed contamination of races deemed to be superior from miscegenation.
• rat kingA conglomeration of rats whose tails have become knotted or stuck together.
• real schoolA secondary school (especially in German-speaking countries) teaching a curriculum of "real-world" subjects (math, science, modern languages) rather than one heavily laden with literature, Latin, and Ancient Greek.
• reprivatizationThe process of, or an instance of, returning to private ownership.
• Rhenish fanA set of isoglosses in West Central German showing how the effect of the High German consonant shift gradually decreases towards the north-west (i.e. towards Low Franconian and Low Saxon)
• Rhineland bastardIn Nazi Germany, a multiracial child born of a Caucasian German mother and an African father serving with French colonial troops during the occupation of the Rhineland after World War I.
• Rhineland-PalatinateA state of modern Germany.
• rhymeproseAn early form of poetry, not strictly distinguished from prose writing, but having certain poetical features.
• rocking stoolA rocking chair.
• Russia GermanA member or descendant of any of the German communities which settled in the Russian Empire (Russia, Ukraine, etc.) and either remain there or migrated on to the US, Argentina, back to Germany, etc.
• rye wolfAn evil creature of German folklore lurking in the rye-fields.
• scandal of particularityThe paradox inherent in the idea of a particular individual human (Jesus of Nazareth) incarnating the eternal divine God.
• Schengen realmSynonym of Schengen Area.
• scissor binocularsA pair of adjustable stereoscopic binoculars consisting of two periscopes.
• seduction theorySigmund Freud's hypothesis, in the mid-1890s, that a repressed memory of an early childhood sexual abuse experience was the essential precondition for hysterical or obsessional symptoms.
• sensitive styleSynonym of Empfindsamer Stil.
• sharp sThe name of the Latin script letter ẞ/ß.
• ship of foolsA country or organization that is poorly run by leaders who lack the expertise to cope with the problems that arise and equally inexpert subjects or members who attempt to influence those leaders.
• sick-wagona covered wagon used to convey or transport those who are sick in a wagon train
• Silk RoadAn extensive interconnected network of trade routes across Asia, North and Northeast Africa, and Europe, historically used by silk traders.
• silver weddingThe silver anniversary of a wedding, the 25th anniversary of a marriage.
• sister languageA cognate language; a language that is related to another by virtue of descending from a common ancestral language.
• snail kingA snail possessing a sinistral shell, from a species in which dextral shells are the norm.
• snow whiteA fairy tale, the best-known version of Schneewittchen collected by the Brothers Grimm, in which a beautiful young girl is targeted by a jealous queen and tended by dwarfs.
• social murderThe knowing causing of the inevitable premature death of members of an oppressed class by deliberately and structurally exposing them to potentially lethal conditions.
• sound lawA rule that describes historical sound change (the change in pronunciation of a given sound or cluster of sounds) in the development of a language.
• sound shifta regular sound change, especially when several phonemes are synchronously affected in analogous ways, and/or when there are several interlinked phases
• source criticismThe critical evaluation of a source of information in terms of intent, date, bias, authenticity and reliability by means of the methodologies of the humanities.
• sourstuffOxygen.
• South West AfricaA former German colony (before World War I) and later a South African colony (from 1915 to 1990, illegally occupied after 1966 per United Nations stipulations) in Southern Africa; modern Namibia.
• sparesomeeconomical; thrifty
• special treatmentA form of exceptional handling or care that differs from the standard, often implying favoritism.
• specifickerA homoeopathic practitioner who sought to ascertain the aetiologies of diseases, focusing on the symptoms most regularly associated with their diagnosis (to the exclusion of peripheral and occasional symptoms), and who, for their treatment, selected remedies (administered in more-or-less undiluted form) on the basis of their general physiological effects, ignoring incidental and side-effects.
• speech communityA group of people sharing a language, or a particular way of using that language
• spooky action at a distanceSynonym of quantum entanglement.
• spritz cookieA buttery German Christmas cookie made in various shapes by squirting the mixture through a press or a piping bag.
• stab-in-the-back mythAny denialist myth misattributing failure to internal betrayal.
• Stalin's lawnA grid of upward-facing spikes placed on the ground within the fortified part of the Berlin Wall, designed to pierce the feet of anyone attempting to cross.
• Stalin's organA Katyusha rocket launcher.
• state examinationIn Germany, the graduation not under the auspices of an educational institution but conditional on governmental interference regulating the admission to a profession; if immediately following education in an academic institution, successful completion of such an examination concludes academic studies and is equivalent to a level 7 academic degree, otherwise it usually immediately follows preparatory service for public office (Referendariat), not mutually exclusively (undergoing two is regular for certain professions in all or some states).
• state of exceptionA condition in which ordinary laws or norms have been suspended by a political authority.
• steinholdingA bar game where one holds a full stein (“beer mug”) of beer with a straight arm out front for as long as possible without bending, dipping, or, spilling beer.
• stem duchyA constituent duchy of the German Empire at the time of the extinction of the Carolingian dynasty (death of Louis the Child in 911) and through the transitional period leading to the formation of the Ottonian Empire.
• stink-catA skunk
• storm and stressSynonym of Sturm und Drang.
• stormtroopSynonym of stormtrooper.
• strong verbAny of a class of Germanic verbs which use ablaut as opposed to a dental affix to indicate tense.
• swan songA final performance or accomplishment, especially one before retirement.
• swinehoundSynonym of pig dog (“dog bred to hunt wild or feral pigs”).
• swine's featherA musket rest with a spike on it, usable as a spear-like weapon.
• Teutonic KnightA member of the Order of the Teutonic Knights.
• Teutonic KnightsA German religious order founded in the late 12th century and known for conquering the Baltic Prussians and bringing Prussia under German control; the order exists today as a charitable organisation.
• Teutonic OrderSynonym of Teutonic Knights.
• thing-in-itselfA thing as it is independent of any conceptualization or perception by the human mind, postulated by practical reason but existing in a condition which is in principle unknowable and unexperienceable.
• thornstoneA deposit of calcium compounds in the process of graduating brine.
• thought collectiveSociological framework conditions in which scientific statements are tailored as language games to become intersubjectively and collectively relevant and conceptualized as facts.
• thought experimentAn attempt to solve a problem using the power of human imagination.
• thoughtseedA metaphor for the very beginning of a concept, belief, or intention that has the potential to grow, develop, and eventually influence future reality.
• through-composedOf a song, composed so that each stanza may have different music, rather than the same being repeated for all of them.
• thrownnessThe Heideggerian concept of individual human existence as a case of being thrown arbitrarily into the world.
• throw the baby out with the bathwaterTo discard, inadvertently or through overzealousness, something valuable or essential ("the baby") in the process of removing or rejecting something unwanted or undesirable ("the bathwater").
• thunderboxA chamber pot enclosed in a box; a portable commode.
• total warWarfare where all of a country's available resources, military as well as civilian, are employed.
• traffic light coalitionA German political coalition consisting of the Social Democratic Party, the Free Democratic Party, and the Greens.
• trip to JerusalemSynonym of musical chairs (“game”).
• Turnip WinterThe winter of 1916 to 1917, a period of profound civilian hardship in Germany during World War I, due to the Allied blockade, the German focus on supplying the military, and a poor harvest.
• twilight sleepAn amnesic condition characterized by an insensibility to pain without loss of consciousness, induced by an injection of morphine and scopolamine, especially to relieve the pain of childbirth.
• übermanA man of exceptional power over his natural abilities.
• U-boatAny German submarine of the First or Second World War, or any Austro-Hungarian submarine of the First World War.
• umbworldThe surrounding world; the world or sphere about one; the environment.
• unionalPertaining to a union.
• unitary psychosisAccording to 19th-century German psychiatry, a single underlying disease process of which all psychoses were surface variations.
• unthingSomething irrelevant or inconsequential; a non-issue; an absurdity.
• Upper BavariaAn administrative region of Bavaria. Seat: Munich.
• Upper FranconiaAn administrative region of Bavaria. Seat: Bayreuth.
• Upper GermanOne of two major dialect groups of the High German language; spoken primarily in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Alsace, and South Tyrol; distinguished from Central German / Middle German (= Mitteldeutsch) by the shifts of Proto-Germanic *-pp-, *-mp- to -pf-, -mpf-.
• Upper PalatinateAn administrative region of Bavaria. Seat: Regensburg.