Picturesque German - German Idioms and Their Origins
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My acquaintance with German idioms
and figures of speech began in one of the oldest restaurants
in Berlin, when my German friends ordered an Eisbein
for dinner (traditional German dish—boiled knuckle
of pork with sauerkraut). I was amazed at such a funny
name (the German word Eisbein means
"ice leg") and I asked my friends about
the origin of this name. To my disappointment nobody
knew the origin and I was answered "It was always
so." Only some years later did I find in a cooking
book the information that people in old Germany made
skates for ice skating from the knuckle bones (hence
the name "ice leg"), because iron
was too expensive to be used for recreation.
I often heard this answer after asking:
"Why it is named so? Why very modish or chic person
can be in German death chic (todschick)?
Why do Germans use such comical words as Darmbremse
(intestine brake) or Analgesicht
(anal face) in absolutely serious
contexts?"—The answer was "It was
always so." Unanswered by my German friends I consulted
dictionaries and figured out that there was very little
special literature about the historical origin of
German idioms and figures of speech. The voluminous
and solid "DUDEN The Great Dictionary of the
German Language" ("Das große Wörterbuch
der deutschen Sprache") gives the interpretation
of thousands of proverbs and idioms, but little information
about their historical origin. Many standard dictionaries
are also short of specialized terms, which are of
my interest, too.
During my translations I'm often confronted with figures of
speech or specialized words, which were understandable
to me in the context of the translation, but their
origins were a riddle to me. I gathered such words
in my glossary, which over time has grown into a large
collection. My sources were not only special dictionaries
and books, but also newspapers, comments of experts
and even TV shows and the Internet. Some words in
my glossary are known only to professionals: merchants,
scientists, sportsmen and even bookkeepers, and are
difficult to find in standard dictionaries.
I believe that every translator or
interpreter who likes foreign languages must know
the origin of idioms which he uses in his translations.
It enriches the translator's language knowledge, broadens
his linguistic horizon, and makes the difference between
a good translator and an amateur. Together with the
information about the historical roots of idioms comes
information about the history, the manners, and customs
of a country. So thanks to the search of historical
origin of different German words, I received plenty
of information about mediaeval Germany and the way
of life in the Middle Ages. I think such a glossary
would be interesting not only to professional translators
but also to the all inquisitive people who are curious
to know why the literal translation of some German
idioms seems to be so comical to the uninitiated.
Professionals may find new information about old meanings
of well-known German words or new nuances in translation
of well-known idioms. The knowledge of the origin
of idioms helps translators understand and accurately
interpret such figures of speech and put them in the
right context.
I
didn't include my glossary some well-known proverbs
from the ancient world (ex. tastes differ
or the sword of Damocles) or from
the Bible (ex. love is patient). Such
proverbs can be found in every modern language and
are only more or less good translations of Latin,
Greek, or Hebrew originals. I also avoided including
German idioms that are similar to their English equivalents
(ex. Er geht mir auf die Nerven = He's getting
on my nerves). I tried to gather original
German idioms and specialized words, but of course
some of them have Latin or Greek roots too. I have
listed the idioms and special terms alphabetically
by key words in the case of idioms or by radicals
in the case of special terms. English in parentheses
( ) indicates the literal translation. I hope my glossary
will effectively help translators in their daily work.
See also:
German-English
Glossary of Idioms
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