Sitzfleisch

Meanings

noun

uncountableThe ability to endure or carry on with an activity.
He never dallied with the image, beloved of the Renaissance, of the lean and shrunk-shanked scholar, possessed of infinite Sitzfleisch and inured to pain.
2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 203
2 more examples
Sitzfleisch: a term used in chess to indicate winning by use of the glutei muscles--the habit of remaining stolid in one's seat hour by hour, making moves that are sound but uninspired, until one's opponent blunders through boredom.
[1947, Frank Vigor Morley, “My One Contribution to Chess”, in Chess Notes, Faber & Faber
This year’s installment of Theatertreffen Berlin, the spring festival of the best of German-language theater that has been going strong since 1964, required some sitzfleisch — that is, the ability to stay planted on your derrière without fidgeting for the duration of a Wagner opera.
2019 May 16, A.J. Goldmann, “A Festival of German Theater, Where More Is More”, in New York Times
slangA person's bottom; the posterior.
Just as he was snorting and puffing like a grampus, I chanced to observe a quite formidable scar on his Sitzfleisch. With an apology for the personal nature of the question, I asked if it was a war wound of some kind.
1987, The Lexington Reader, page 530

Borrowed from German Sitzfleisch.

More words from German

Cite this entry

APA

Sitzfleisch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sitzfleisch

MLA

“Sitzfleisch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sitzfleisch. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Sitzfleisch,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sitzfleisch.