List of German expressions commonly used in English

  • Biergarten, open-air drinking establishment.
  • Blitz, taken from Blitzkrieg (lightning war). It is a team defensive play in American or Canadian football in which the defense sends more players than the offense can block.
  • Delicatessen, speciality food retailer, fine foods (German spelling Delikatessen)
  • Doppelgänger, literally double-goer, also spelled in English as doppelganger; a double or look-alike. However, in English the connotation is that of a ghostly apparition of a duplicate living person.
  • Ersatz, replacement; usually implying an artificial and inferior substitute or imitation.
  • Hamburger, sandwich with a meat patty and garnishments.
  • Hinterland
  • Iceberg (German Eisberg)
  • kaput (German spelling: kaputt), out-of-order, broken.
  • Karabiner, snaplink, a metal loop with a sprung or screwed gate, used in climbing and mountaineering; modern short form/derivation of the older word ‘Karabinerhaken’; translates to ‘riflehook’. The German word can also mean Carbine.
  • Kindergarten, literally children’s garden; day-care centre, playschool, preschool.
  • Kitsch, cheap, sentimental, gaudy items of popular culture.
  • Kohlrabi, type of cabbage.
  • Muesli, breakfast cereal (German spelling: Müesli or Müsli).
  • Neanderthal (modern German spelling: Neandertal), for German Neandertaler, meaning “of, from, or pertaining to the Neandertal (“Neander Valley”)”, the site near Düsseldorf where early Homo neanderthalensis fossils were found.
  • Nein — no.
  • Noodle, from German Nudel, a type of food; a string of pasta.
  • Poltergeist, literally noisy ghost; an alleged paranormal phenomenon where objects appear to move of their own accord.
  • Poodle, from German Pudel, breed of dog.
  • Pretzel (Standard German spelling: Brezel), flour and yeast based pastry.
  • Pumpernickel, type of sourdough rye bread, strongly flavoured, dense, and dark in colour.
  • Quartz (German Quarz)
  • Sauerkraut (sometimes shortened to Kraut), fermented cabbage.
  • Schadenfreude, joy from pain (literally harm joy); delight at the misfortune of others.
  • Schnaps, distilled beverage.
  • Spritzer, chilled drink from white wine and soda water (from spritzen = to spray).
  • Strudel (e. g. Apfelstrudel, milk-cream strudel), a filled pastry.
  • uber, über, over; used to indicate that something or someone is of better or superior magnitude, e.g. Übermensch.
  • verboten, prohibited, forbidden.
  • Wanderlust, the yearning to travel.
  • Wiener, hot dog (from Wiener Würstchen = Viennese sausage).
  • Wunderkind, literally wonder child; a child prodigy.
  • Zeitgeist, spirit of the time.

 

From Wikipedia

 

Biergarten (Digital Cat)

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