PF Wordsmiths

[JAD]

I have a feeling there's a German word for everything. They have their own language you know.

Yes, I should have said I bet they have a really accurate word for this. As the Inuit have 31 words for snow, the Germans have 52 for craftsmanship.

[OlongJohnson]

As one who occasionally makes things with my own hands and by participating in the management of engineering and manufacturing processes, and has a long-time love/hate relationship with various products of German industry, I would be very interested in an explanation. Got sources?

[UNM1136]

I was going to check in a thesaurus, but dinosaurs scare me....

pat

[Balisong]

Yes, I should have said I bet they have a really accurate word for this. As the Inuit have 31 words for snow, the Germans have 52 for craftsmanship.

Yet they don't have a word for "kick". According to a German houseguest we hosted once.

[JAD]

Yet they don't have a word for "kick". According to a German houseguest we hosted once.

I know from footy that they say 'kick.' The dictionary says they use stossen (non-foot-specific knock, punch, or punt) and tritten (cognate to 'tread') depending on how much force is applied.

[P30]

I am interested to hear from @P30 or @Luger because there is probably a German word for this.

There is in deed a German word for it. And I'm not proud of it:

"Obrigkeitshörigkeit"

Quite long word. It has two parts:

1. "Obrigkeit": This literally means the ones above you. In most cases, it means the government. Linguee.de translates it as "authority".
2. "Hörigkeit": This literally means to listen and to follow like a slave. Linguee translates it as "bondage".

Why I'm not proud of it: In Nazi Germany, there have been too many people who were "obrigkeitshörig". And I still know some people who are today. Don't know, if there are more of this kind in Germany than in other countries. I think the Italians are better in this regard, they don't care so much about the law. For me, the Golden Rule is paramount. If the law is a refinement of the Golden Rule: Great. If not, then the law is bad.

Many people in East Germany are quite cool in this regard. Many of them are not "obrigkeitshörig" at all. They remember what the communist regime did to them not long ago (lying and suppressing).

[Balisong]

I know from footy that they say 'kick.' The dictionary says they use stossen (non-foot-specific knock, punch, or punt) and tritten (cognate to 'tread') depending on how much force is applied.

As I recall (this was a few years back now), I think stossen was the word she said was closest, but she specifically mentioned that it wasn't particular to using the foot.

[the Schwartz]

Those are in the ballpark, though "humbled" might have a bit more of a negative connotation than the word I'm trying to remember. Maybe if it was combined with firgun?

Duende comes closest that I can remember, and may be the word itself if I learned a slightly different definition.

I dunno. The only other ''exotic'' word that I know, is the one that applied to most of my friends during my college years at the bars. They were never pharfrompuken.

[JAD]

As I recall (this was a few years back now), I think stossen was the word she said was closest, but she specifically mentioned that it wasn't particular to using the foot.

So spracht Langenscheidt.

[Hieronymous]

Enthralled, comes to mind.