"Ersatz good An ersatz () good is a substitute good, especially one that is considered inferior to the good it replaces. It has particular connotations of wartime usage. ""Ersatz"" is a German word literally meaning ""substitute"" or ""replacement"". Although it is used as an adjective in English, it is a noun in German. In German orthography noun phrases formed are usually represented as a single word, forming compound nouns such as ""Ersatzteile"" (""spare parts"") or ""Ersatzspieler"" (""substitute player""). While the term used in English often implies that the substitution is of unsatisfactory or inferior quality compared with the ""real thing"","
"FE-Schrift The ' or ' (forgery-impeding typeface) is a typeface introduced for use on license plates. Its monospaced letters and numbers are slightly disproportionate to prevent easy modification and to improve machine readability. It has been developed in Germany where it has been mandatory since November 2000. The abbreviation ""FE"" is derived from the compound German adjective """" combining the noun """" (falsification) and the verb """" (to hinder). """" means font in German. Other countries have later introduced the same or a derived typeface for license plates taking advantage of the proven design for the FE-Schrift. The motivation for"
"sphere was mocking the unreflected and basically unnecessary kowtow as ""German linguistic submissiveness"". German vocabulary has numerous cases of English loanwords now fully ""naturalized"" as German words, including full inflection. English had only very limited influence on German before the mid-19th century. Such loanwords as there are mostly concern nautical vocabulary, loaned into Low German (e.g. ""tank"", ultimately from Indo-Aryan; ""Tanker"" (""tanker (ship)"") is early 20th century). In the 19th century, it was still more common to use loan translation for the vocabulary of industrialisation (""Dampfmaschine"" for ""steam engine"", ""Pferdestärke"" for ""horse power"", etc.). To some extent, this continued in"
"has also been in use many times. First by the Romans, who called it Germania ""Inferior"". After the Frankish empire was divided several times, most of it became the Duchy of Lower Lorraine in the tenth century, where the Low Countries politically have their origin. Lower Lorraine disintegrated into a number of duchies, counties and bishoprics. Some of these became so powerful, that their names were used as a ""pars pro toto"" for the Low Countries, i.e., Flanders, Holland and to a lesser extent Brabant. Burgundian, and later Habsburg rulers added one by one the Low Countries' polities in a"
"Inferior"" (""Lower"" Germania). It is a reference to the Low Countries' downriver location at the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta near the North Sea. From 1551 the designation ""Nederlands"" received strong competition from the name ""Nederduits"" (""Low Dutch;"" ""Dutch"" is used here in its archaic sense that covers all continental West Germanic languages). It is a calque of the before mentioned Roman province ""Germania Inferior"" and an attempt by early Dutch grammarians to give their language more prestige by linking it to Roman times. Likewise, ""Hoogduits"" (""High Dutch"") came into use as a Dutch exonym for the German language, spoken in neighboring German"
"extent conflated with dwarves (). Thus, some dwarves that appear in German heroic poetry have been seen as relating to elves. In particular, nineteenth-century scholars tended to think that the dwarf Alberich, whose name etymologically means ""elf-powerful"", was influenced by early traditions of elves. From around the Late Middle Ages, the word ""elf"" began to be used in English as a term loosely synonymous with the French loan-word ""fairy""; in elite art and literature, at least, it also became associated with diminutive supernatural beings like Puck, hobgoblins, Robin Goodfellow, the English and Scots brownie, and the Northumbrian English hob. However,"
"Low German, Frisian and Dutch, numerous diminutives and abbreviated forms exist, including Low German, Dutch and Frisian ""Heike"", ""Heiko""; Dutch ""Hein"", ""Heintje""; German ""Heiner"", ""Heinz"". The original diphthong was lost in Dutch ""Hendrik"" (hypocoristics ""Henk"", ""Hennie"", ""Rik""), Scandinavian ""Henrik"" (whence ""Henning""). Eastern European languages under the influence of German and the Scandinavian languages during the medieval period have developed native forms: Polish ""Henryk"", Czech ""Jindřich"", ""Hynek"". Hungarian, Slovene, Croatian ""Henrik"" Finnish ""Henrikki"" (hypocoristic ""Heikki""), Lithuanian ""Henrikas"", Lithuanian ""Herkus"". The French form ""Henri"" became productive in the British Isles, in Middle English adopted as ""Harry, Herry"". ""Herry"" was adopted into Welsh"
"many loanwords found in the Scandinavian, Finnic, and Baltic languages, as well as standard German and English. In the late Middle Ages, Middle Low German lost its prestige to Early New High German, which was first used by elites as a written and, later, a spoken language. Reasons for this loss of prestige include the decline of the Hanseatic League, followed by political heteronomy of Northern Germany and the cultural predominance of Middle and Southern Germany during the Protestant Reformation and Luther's German translation of the Bible. Middle Low German Middle Low German or Middle Saxon (ISO 639-3 code codice_1."
"English ""correct?"" or the informal form ""right?"", though more often realised as the word for ""true"" or ""truth"", in fact, such as in Polish ""prawda?"", Slovak ""pravda?"" or the particle ""však?"", or Spanish ""¿verdad?"", which in turn can be presented in a negative form (""not true?""), such as in the Polish ""nieprawdaż?"", German ""nicht wahr?"" or Lithuanian ""ar ne?"". A plain conjunction may be used, such as the Czech and Slovak ""že?"" (""that""). Various other words occur in specific languages, such as German ""oder?"" (""or""), Slovak ""či?"" (""or"", colloquialism), and the Mandarin Chinese 吗 ""ma"" (literally ""what"" but never used"
"in many newspapers during World War II, which printed ""Fuehrer"" for ""Führer"". However, today umlauts are usually either left out, with no ""e"" following the previous letter, or in sources with a higher Manual of Style (such as ""The New York Times"" or ""The Economist"") included as German. Zurich is an exception since it is not a case of a ""dropped umlaut"", but is a genuine English exonym, used also in French (from Latin ""Turicum"") written without the umlaut even alongside other German and Swiss names that retain the umlaut in English. As words are naturalized into English, sometimes diacritics"
"translation into English as ""under""(unter) ""officer""(offizier), thus ""under officer"", with both words being the progenitors of their English equivalents, and, in use, having the meaning of ""lower officer"" or ""sub-officer"") describes a class of ranks between normal enlisted personnel (""Mannschaften"" or in Austria ""Chargen"") and officers (""Offiziere""). In this group of ranks there are, in Germany, two other classes: ""Unteroffiziere mit Portepee"" (with sword-knot) and ""Unteroffiziere ohne Portepee"" (without swordknot), both containing several ranks, which in Austria would be ""Unteroffiziere"" (NCOs) and ""Höhere Unteroffiziere"" (senior NCOs or literally translated as ""higher under officers"", with the Austrian use of the word"
"fuzzy or unsubstantial image; in optics, photography, and cinematography especially, a flare, secondary image, or spurious signal. The synonym ""spook"" is a Dutch loanword, akin to Low German ""spôk"" (of uncertain etymology); it entered the English language via American English in the 19th century. Alternative words in modern usage include ""spectre"" (altn. ""specter""; from Latin ""spectrum""), the Scottish ""wraith"" (of obscure origin), ""phantom"" (via French ultimately from Greek ""phantasma"", compare ""fantasy"") and ""apparition"". The term ""shade"" in classical mythology translates Greek σκιά, or Latin ""umbra"", in reference to the notion of spirits in the Greek underworld. ""Haint"" is a synonym"
"the word’s synonym '– “half tumbleds”. Seen that way, the word is a defamation, because it can be associated with “unformed” and “premature” (in German, there also are a few other slight verbal slanders containing “halb”: e.g. ' (literally: half-educated) and ' (literally: half dish / half portion, used for children or adolescents that appear weak). But it is likely that the defamation was not as defamatory to the subculture itself, because its members began calling themselves “Halbstarke”, too. In German, both terms also have an adjective-form (' / '). These ' had found prototypes for their fashion and style"
"different pronunciation. In English, the word should be written with a lower-case letter (doppelgänger) unless it is the first word of a sentence or part of a title. It is further common to drop the umlaut on the letter ""a"", writing (and often pronouncing) ""doppelganger"". English-speakers have only recently applied this German word to a paranormal concept. Francis Grose's, ""Provincial Glossary"" of 1787 used the term ""fetch"" instead, defined as the ""apparition of a person living."" Catherine Crowe's book on paranormal phenomena, ""The Night-Side of Nature"" (1848) helped make the German word well-known. However, the concept of alter egos and"
"Puisne Puisne (; from Old French ""puisné"", modern ""puîné"", ""later born, younger"" (and thence, ""inferior"") from Latin ""postea"", ""afterwards"", and ""natus"", ""born"") is a legal term of art used mainly in British English meaning ""inferior in rank"". The word ""puisne"", in the anglicized spelling ""puny"", has also become an adjective meaning ""weak or undersized"". The judges and barons of the common law courts at Westminster, other than those having a distinct title, were called puisne. By the Supreme Court of Judicature Act 1877, a ""puisne judge"" is deemed a judge of the High Court other than the Lord Chancellor, the"
"an abusive manner especially against children and teens who may be more focused on studies, while less popular, fashionable, or socially inclined. The word comes from English dialect ""geek"" or ""geck"" (meaning a ""fool"" or ""freak""; from Middle Low German ""Geck""). ""Geck"" is a standard term in modern German and means ""fool"" or ""fop"". The root also survives in the Dutch and Afrikaans adjective ""gek"" (""crazy""), as well as some German dialects, and in the Alsatian word ""Gickeleshut"" (""jester's hat""; used during carnival). In 18th century Austria, ""Gecken"" were freaks on display in some circuses. In 19th century North America,"
"and philosophies deny evil's existence and usefulness in describing people. The modern English word ""evil"" (Old English ) and its cognates such as the German and Dutch are widely considered to come from a Proto-Germanic reconstructed form of ""*ubilaz"", comparable to the Hittite ""huwapp-"" ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European form and suffixed zero-grade form . Other later Germanic forms include Middle English , , , Old Frisian (adjective and noun), Old Saxon , Old High German , and Gothic . The root meaning of the word is of obscure origin though shown to be akin to modern German """" (although ""evil"""
"affected by disease. The English word ""elf"" is from the Old English word most often attested as ""ælf"" (whose plural would have been *""ælfe""). Although this word took a variety of forms in different Old English dialects, these converged on the form ""elf"" during the Middle English period. During the Old English period, separate forms were used for female elves (such as ""ælfen"", putatively from common Germanic *""ɑlβ(i)innjō""), but during the Middle English period the word ""elf"" came routinely to include female beings. The main medieval Germanic cognates are Old Norse ""alfr"", plural ""alfar"", and Old High German ""alp"", plural"
"been used outside of anglophone countries for well over a century. For instance, in Germany it has been known since the 1830s, in Sweden since at least 1862, in France since at least 1875, in Hungary, and in Finland. Humbug A humbug is a person or object that behaves in a deceptive or dishonest way, often as a hoax or in jest. The term was first described in 1751 as student slang, and recorded in 1840 as a ""nautical phrase"". It is now also often used as an exclamation to mean nonsense or gibberish. When referring to a person, a"
"to reflect the fact that their abbreviations spelled out the names of animals associated with the wizarding world, which did not always work in other languages. ""N.E.W.T.s"" was translated into Swedish as ""F.U.T.T."" (Fruktansvärt Utmattande Trollkarls-Test, Terribly Exhausting Wizard's Test). ""Futt"" means ""measly"" in Swedish. Another issue was the translation of ""The Mirror of Erised"", since """"Erised"""" is created by reading English ""desire"" backwards. In German the word desire is spelled ""Begehren"", so the mirror was called ""Der Spiegel ""Nerhegeb"""". The Finnish translation also follows this formula of reversing a word; the mirror is called ""Iseeviot-peili"" ""iseeviot"" being ""toiveesi"" (""your"
"an FE-Schrift using a special design of vanity plates. Some countries have developed a typeface for license plates with similar features: Albania since 2002, Georgia since 2014, Guinea, New Zealand, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovenia (2004–2008), FE-Schrift The ' or ' (forgery-impeding typeface) is a typeface introduced for use on license plates. Its monospaced letters and numbers are slightly disproportionate to prevent easy modification and to improve machine readability. It has been developed in Germany where it has been mandatory since November 2000. The abbreviation ""FE"" is derived from the compound German adjective """" combining the noun """" (falsification) and the verb"
"consumers to ""Test The West"". Denglisch Denglisch (German spelling) or Denglish (English spelling) is a portmanteau of the German words ""Deutsch"" and ""Englisch"" (""English""), and can also be used to refer to a portmanteau of English and Dutch. The term is used in all German-speaking countries to refer to the increasingly strong influx of macaronic English or pseudo-English vocabulary (and other features of the language such as grammar and orthography) into German. Many synonyms exist, including Germ(l)ish, Gerglish, Angleutsch, Genglish, and Engleutsch as well as Pseudo-Englisch. Both these and Denglish are also used to refer to incorrect English that is"
"of a suitable translation of the pun, perpetuating its sense and meaning, may have been its translation into German. Since English and German are closely related languages, German provides an equivalent adjective (""ernst"") and also a matching masculine proper name (""Ernst""). The meaning and tenor of the wordplay are exactly the same. Yet there are many different possible titles in German, mostly concerning sentence structure. The two most common ones are ""Bunbury oder ernst / Ernst sein ist alles"" and ""Bunbury oder wie wichtig es ist, ernst / Ernst zu sein"". In a study of Italian translations, Adrian Pablé found"
"derives from Middle English ' for 'evil or scolding person', used since at least the 11th century, in turn from Old English ' or """", 'shrew' (animal); cognates in other Germanic languages have divergent meanings, including 'fox', 'dwarf', 'old man', and 'devil'. The modern spelling dates to the 14th century. Historically the animals called shrews were superstitiously feared, falsely believed to have a venomous bite and to behave aggressively and with cruelty, leading to the now-obsolete word ""beshrew"", 'to curse or invoke evil upon'. Beginning in the mid-13th century, following on the belief that the animals could exert a wicked"
"False friend False friends are words in two languages that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning. An example is the English ""embarrassed"" and the Spanish ""embarazada"" (which means ""pregnant""), or the word ""sensible"", which means ""reasonable"" in English, but ""sensitive"" in French and Spanish. The term originates from a book by French linguists describing the phenomenon, which was translated in 1928 and entitled, ""false friend of a translator"". There is often a partial overlap in meanings, which creates additional complications. As well as producing completely false friends, the use of loanwords often results in the use of"
"a taboo word (such as a swear word) to form a euphemism is known as ""taboo deformation"", or a minced oath. In American English, words that are unacceptable on television, such as ""fuck"", may be represented by deformations such as ""freak"", even in children's cartoons.. Feck is a minced oath popularised by the sitcom Father Ted. Some examples of rhyming slang may serve the same purpose: to call a person a ""berk"" sounds less offensive than to call a person a ""cunt"", though ""berk"" is short for Berkeley Hunt, which rhymes with ""cunt"". Bureaucracies frequently spawn euphemisms intentionally, as doublespeak"
"Schmuck (pejorative) Schmuck, or shmuck, in American English is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (, ""shmok""), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is a vulgar term for a penis. The etymology of the word is a matter of some disagreement. Lexicographer Michael Wex, author of ""How to Be a Mentsh (And Not a Shmuck)"", has been quoted as saying that the Yiddish word ""shmok"" ""comes out of baby talk."" According to Wex, ""a little"
"down. The latter two correspond with the ""ober"" and ""unter"" cards found in German and Swiss playing cards. The Italians and Iberians replaced the / system with the ""Knight"" and """" or """" before 1390, perhaps to make the cards more visually distinguishable. In England, the lowest court card was called the ""knave"" which originally meant ""male child"" (compare German ), so in this context the character could represent the ""prince"", son to the king and queen; the meaning ""servant"" developed later. Queens appeared sporadically in packs as early as 1377, especially in Germany. Although the Germans abandoned the queen"
"also the official name for Saturday in East Germany. In West Frisian there are also two words for Saturday. In Wood Frisian it is "" saterdei"" and in Clay Frisian it is ""sneon"", derived from ""snjoen"", a combination of Old Frisian ""sunne"", meaning ""sun"" and ""joen"", meaning eve. In the Westphalian dialects of Low Saxon, in East Frisian Low Saxon and in the Saterland Frisian language, Saturday is called ""Satertag"", also akin to Dutch ""Zaterdag"", which has the same linguistic roots as the English word ""Saturday"". It was formerly thought that the English name referred to a deity named ""Sætere"""
"the name Englisc. During the Middle Ages the Old English variant ""þeodisc"" was subsequently influenced from Middle Dutch ""duutsc/duitsc/dietsc"", and was then mainly used to refer to the inhabitants of the Low Countries, with whom there was extensive trade. Though initially also encompassing a broader definition signifying ""speakers of Germanic languages on the continent"" or ""Non-Romance speakers"" the use of the word ""Dutch"" in this sense was rare and would become obsolete following the growing and intensive rivalry between England and the Dutch Republic during the 17th century. An exception are the Pennsylvania Dutch, who were originally German immigrants, speak"
"diver"", which is an alliteration in German), or ""Mutterficker"" (""motherfucker""). A whole range of these expressions aim at supposedly weak or conformist behaviour, such as ""Ampel-bei-Rot-Stehenbleiber"" (""traffic-lights-on-red-stopper""), ""Warmduscher"" (""warm-showerer""), ""Unterhosen-Wechsler"" (""underpants changer""), or ""Schattenparker"" (""in the shadow parker""). Especially among children there are several fixed terms of this type, like ""Spielverderber"" (""game spoiler""). Note: The suffix ""-er"" is also used to form instrument nouns, e.g. ""Salzstreuer"" and ""Bohrer"" also denote instruments. The normal gerund noun is generally the same word as the infinitive. The gerund does not have a plural (normally – but if so, the form would be unchanged),"
"a conflation of two separate names, one with the second element ""wig"" ""fight"", the other with the second element ""wih"" ""hallowed"". The Dutch form is Hadewych (Hadewijch). A German and Dutch diminutive is ""Hedy"". The German name was adopted into Swedish in about the 15th century and is still in use in Swedish, and to a lesser extent in Danish and Norwegian, in the spelling ""Hedvig"", with a diminutive ""Hedda"". The German name was adopted into Polish, as Jadwiga. A French form is Edwige (not to be confused with the unrelated Anglo-Saxon Eadwig, Edwig). Hedwig (name) Hedwig is a German"
"using ""begin"" instead of ""commence""). In its more extreme form, it involves reviving native words that are no longer widely used (such as ""ettle"" for ""intend"") and/or coining new words from Germanic roots (such as word stock for vocabulary). This dates at least to the inkhorn term debate of the 16th and 17th century, where some authors rejected the foreign influence, and has continued to this day, being most prominent in Plain English advocacy to avoid Latinate terms if a simple native alternative exists. Foreign language influences in English The core of English language descends from Old English, the language"