High German Loanwords in
English
Updated: 26 Mar 2000
Introduction:
This small collection of
High German loans into English is based mainly on the items provided by
Pfeffer/Cannon (1994)
and Speake
(1998). The background information has been taken mainly from Pfeffer and Serjeantson, but
Jespersen has also been useful in this regard. This collection cannot
be - nor
indeed is - in any way comprehensive. I have merely collected those
loans from
High German which I personally consider to be either common,
well-known,
interesting or represent lexical items in various specialist fields.
Many
specialist terms and indeed a number of slightly more common words have
not
been included. To do proper justice to the High German influence on
English
would require much greater research and effort than is possible here.
The
interested reader who requires further and more detailed information is
advised
in the first instance to consult Pfeffer,
whose book
provides a very readable, methodical and apparently comprehensive
treatment of
HG loans in English. Dates have been taken from Pfeffer
where possible, otherwise from Speake.
In general, I have not
explained the German loans, since many are self-explanatory, others
have no
formal synonyms in English and still others would need more extensive
explanation than the trouble would merit. In a few cases, for some of
the more
unusual terms or for those readers with slightly less German, I’ve
added very
brief explanations. This list generally assumes the reader is familiar
with
many more common German words.
In the majority of
cases, German words are not calqued in English, i.e. they are loaned
directly
from the source language and their form is seldom changed from the
original.
Jespersen remarks that the forms Siebengebirge and Riesengebirge
are much more commonly met with than the
Until the 1500s, the HG
input in English was practically zero. Before then, the major West
Germanic
influence on the English vocabulary had been the quite considerable
number of
words loaned from Middle Low German and Middle Dutch. But in the late
1500s,
many German miners were imported to work in English mines and the
German
contribution to English mineralogy terminology in particular has been
extensive
(e.g. feldspar, gneiss,
quartz). This has
been one of the most distinctive German contributions to the English
vocabulary
- the Germans at that time were skilled in mining and metal-working -
but
others include such fields as chemistry, psychology (Freud, Jung,
Adler),
philosophy (Kant, Nietzsche) and linguistics (Grimm, Bopp).
The dictionary section
of Pfeffer and Cannon
includes 5,380 loans from HG,
although many are in specialist scientific fields, in particular,
mineralogy,
chemistry and psychology. The earliest of these loans is recorded from
1346,
while the latest items are dated to 1990.
The great majority of HG
loans into English has occurred in the 19th and
20th
centuries, and as far as I can tell, slightly more were loaned during
the 1800s
than the following century. The
Pfeffer and Cannon’s excellent study has shown that
Jespersen’s remark
(p.143) “There are surprisingly few German loan-words in English”
cannot be
upheld, while the same author’s observation (p.143) that “very little
can be
inferred from them with regard to cultural relations, apart, perhaps,
from some
philosophical terms...” is a little closer to the truth. But even here,
the
study of Pfeffer and
Cannon has shown that German has
contributed much to the terminology of many important fields in English
cultural life. It is especially the case in the sciences, however, that
the
German language has enriched English and in whose various constituent
disciplines, if taken as whole, the Germans justly have a reputation
for
excellence. The work of Pfeffer
and Cannon reveals
that about 30% of German loans into English are from the fields of
mineralogy
and chemistry alone, while biology, geology and botany constitute a
further 10%
(Pfeffer, xxii).
Of direct relevance for the studies presented on this site is the
knowledge
that German has contributed some 101 terms to the English vocabulary
within
linguistics, 73 within literature and 33 within mythology (Pfeffer,
pp. 4-5).
In the vast majority of
cases, German loans have added to the lexical resources available to
English
speakers, rather than replacing any already existing words (cf. the
rather
different situation regarding French, Latin and Greek imports into
English).
The total corpus collected by Pfeffer
and Cannon
would lead one to believe that the High German lexical contribution has
been
rather greater than many linguists were inclined to believe in the
past. This
is certainly the case if we are arguing purely on the total number of
words
borrowed. However, if we are basing our judgment on the size and
importance of
the German element in the everyday English vocabulary, the picture is
rather
different. In this case, the German element has been negligible and is
in no
way comparable to the huge impact that French, Old Norse, Latin and
even Low
German have had on the lexis of everyday colloquial English.
Notes:
a)
In a
number of cases, a German noun is loaned directly into English with the
capital
letter retained and this is one indicator that reveals the word was, or
is, still
felt to be foreign in English, i.e. it is a Gastwort. Quite often this
noun
will later be re-spelt with a lower case initial letter, as is custom
with all
English nouns that have been fully assimilated. Sometimes, however, the
noun
will be spelt in English using lower case from the outset, and then later adopt a capital initial
letter in accordance with the German practice, apparently to
consciously affirm
the German origin of the source word. In such cases, the earliest
recorded
appearance in English, irrespective of orthography is given.
b)
Loan-translations
have the German source word given in italics,
where known.
c)
Explanations
and translations are generally taken from Pfeffer/Cannon.
i)
German loans sorted by date
1400 and 1500s:
marzipan
(1494); landgrave (1516) a German count; pfennig
(1547); junker
(1554) a German nobleman; burgher
(1568); masterpiece (1579); Landtag
(1591) now refers to the convening of the parliament in certain German
states;
1600s:
hamster
(1607); Wendish
(1617); Schloss
(1617) a German castle or manor house; sauerkraut
(1617); quartz
(1631); plunder (1632 - Thirty Years’ War); kobold
(1635) a
goblin or cave dwelling wight,
especially in German
folklore; zinc (1641); pumpernickel
(1663); cobalt (1683);
Fräulein
(1689) a young unmarried (German)
woman or girl; huntmaster
(1691) < Jägermeister;
krummhorn
(1694) an obsolete wind reed instrument;
1700s:
seltzer
(1741); shale (1747); nickel
(1755); homesickness (1756)
< Heimweh;
gneiss (1757); feldspar (1757); Valkyrie
(1768); Valhalla
(1768); hornblende (1770); swindler
(1774); Sturm und Drang
(1776) a passionate German literary movement in
the late 1700s (> Storm and Stress,
1855); jaeger, jäger
(1776)
"German rifleman"; noodle (1779); waltz
(1781); meerschaum
(1784) Sepiolite, a
hydrated magnesium silicate or a
pipe made from this (> sea-foam, 1837); Grenzbegriff
(1787) a borderline concept; Totentanz
(1789)
the dance of death, Danse
macabre; nix (1789)
nothing; fatherland (1791-1823) < Vaterland;
schema (1796); foreworld
(1796) primeval or ancient world, < Vorwelt; hausfrau
(1798);
1800s:
Vorstellung
(1807) an idea, image or mental picture; kaiser
(1807); dummkopf
(1809); cookbook
(1809) < Kuchbuch;
kriegsspiel
(1811) a type of military
board-game; Plattdeutsch
(1814); landsturm
(1814) "reserve force, militia,
levies"; handbook (1814) < Handbuch;
landwehr
(1815) "army reserve";
Naturphilosophie
(1817); schnapps (1818); poodle
(1820); Walpurgis Night
(1822); ritter
(1824) a knight or member of
the lower German nobility;
pretzel (1824); living room (1825)
< Wohnzimmer; glockenspiel
(1825); Indo-Germanic
(1826); Weltliteratur (1827); semester
(1827); war game
(1828) < Kriegsspiel; alpenstock
(1829) a long staff with a metal point used in mountain climbing; standpoint
(1829) < Standpunkt; doppelganger
(1830); swan song (1831) < Schwanengesang;
Germanist (1831); gasthof (1832)
a German hotel or country inn; nix
(1833) a bathing spirit in German folklore; Wissenschaft
(1834)
knowledge, learning, scholarship, science; gasthaus
(1834) a German inn
or tavern; Middle English (1836); Gelehrte
(1836) a scholar; yodel
(1838); protein (1838); paraffin
(1838); Low German (1838)
< Plattdeutsch; Stadthaus
(1839) a German town hall; mark (1839); dachshund
(1840); Nachlass
(1842) unpublished posthumous literary works of an author; foreword
(1842) < Vorwort; Fach
(1842); zollverein (1843) customs union; bergschrund
(1843); umlaut
(1844); kraut (1845); folklore
(1846) < Volkskunde; Ding
an sich (1846) Thing-in-itself; Dasein
(1846) existence; an sich (1846); prosit
(1846); Sehnsucht
(1847) yearning or wistful longing (> longing,
1955); zeitgeist (1848); Schinken
(1848); poltergeist
(1848); katzenjammer (1849) hangover; ablaut
(1849); zither
(1850); Wirtschaft (1850) domestic economy,
housekeeping; Bund
(1850) federation or association, especially political; Vaterland
(1852); Schadenfreude (1852) enjoyment of others’
misfortunes; Lied
(1852); kindergarten (1852); gemütlich
(1852); lager
(1853); kuchen (1854) a name for several varieties
of coffee cake; schnitzel
(1854); Schmelz (1854); Völkerwanderung
(1855); liverwurst
(1855); Lebenslust (1855) joie d’vivre; war-lord
(1856) < Kriegsherr; blutwurst
(1856); Anschaung
(1856) sensory intuition; Ewigkeit (1857); Volkslied
(1858); unberufen
(1858); word-lore (1861) morphology and
word-formation < Wortlehre; edelweiss
(1862); Lehrjahre
(1865) an informal term of apprenticeship; rinderpest
(1865), > cattle pest
(1866); rucksack
(1866); wiener (1867); Reichstag
(1867) the lower German national
parliamentary chamber; Weltanschauung (1868)
world-view; liebling
(1868); kirsch (1869); i-umlaut (1870);
Weltstadt
(1870-99); Märchen (1871) a fairy tale or
folk-tale; Trinkhalle
(1873) room in a spa where the water can be drunk; soundlaw
(1874) < Lautgesetz; loanword
(1874) < Lehnwort; spectrometer
(1874); Weltschmerz
(1875); überhaupt (1875) in general, considered as
a whole; ersatz
(1875); vorspiel (1876) prelude or overture; singspiel
(1876); Minnelied
(1876) a love song or lay; liebchen (1876); leitmotif
(1876); Kulturgeschichte
(1876); Grübelsucht (1876) an obsessive disorder in
which even basic
facts are questioned; frankfurter (1877); delicatessen
(1877); Nachschlag
(1879); rückumlaut (late 1800s?) >
unmutation;
affricate (1880); anlaut
(1881) the
initial sound of a word or syllable; auslaut
(1882); breaking (1883) < Brechung;
folk etymology (1883); hamburger
(1884); Wein,
Wieb
und Gesang
(1885); und so weiter
(1885); offprint (1885) < Abdruck;
erbswurst
(1885); Fraktur
(1886); Gesellschaft
(1887) a society based on the rationally conceived duties of its
constituents; Gemeinschaft
(1887) a society based on community,
kinship or affection; backfisch
(1888) a fish
too small to be boiled but large enough to be baked; speech/linguistic
island (1888) < Sprachinsel;
sauerbraten (1889) a dish of marinated roasted beef
(> sour beef (1935)); wienerwurst
(1889); seminar
(1889); hinterland (1890); gestalt
(1890); giro
(1890); wunderkind (1891); Kunstgeschichte
(1892) art history; klabberjass
(1892); Gutnish
(1892) pertaining to the Swedish island of
Gotland; its language; gemütlichkeit
(1892); volksfest
(1893); strudel (1893); horst
(1893); pleasure-pain (1894) < Lust-Unlust; diesel
(1894); schwa (1895);
kaput
(1895); spiel (1896); Festschrift
(1898); Weinstube
(1899) a small German saloon; Kunstforscher
(1899) art historian;
1900s:
Achtung
(1900s); Erlebnis
(1900-29) the mind’s
identification with its own emotions and feelings; gallows humour (1901) <
Galgenhumor;
wanderlust
(1902); klippe
(1902); Weltpolitik
(1903); zugswang
(1904) a situation in chess
where any move would result in disadvantage but the player is compelled
to do
so; einfühlung
(1904) empathy (> empathy,
1904); lebensraum (1905)
space considered necessary for the health and development of a nation
(> living room, 1934); hochgeboren
(1905); felsenmeer (1905) a boulder field; Stollen
(1906); Schweinerei
(1906); Drang
nach Osten
(1906) the imperialistic foreign policy of Germany re. eastern Europe
in the
1930s; Drang
(1906); Wehmut
(1907) sadness, melancholy, nostalgia; quatsch
(1907); Ursprache
(1908); Stimmung
(1909) mood, atmosphere, ambiance; Götterdämmerung
(1909); Bildungsroman (1910) a novel charting the
maturation or mental
and emotional development of its protagonist; schmerz
(1911); verboten (1912); Galgenhumor
(1912); doctorand
(1912); Neanderthaler
(1913); U-boat (1913); realpolitik
(1914); glutwolke
(1914) nuée ardente; gesundheit
(1914); kamerad
(1914) used by German soldiers in WWI as a cry of surrender; Schrecklichkeit
(1915) a policy of horror or
terrorism, especially in war (> frightfulness
(1914)); strafe (1915); echt
(1916); Doberman
(1917); breakthrough (1918) < Durchbruch;
Spielraum
(1921)
the range of variables considered in projecting the likelihood of an
hypothesis; Reich (1921); spurlos
(1922) without a trace, from sight; Formgeschichte
(1923); nicht
wahr
(1924); isogloss (1925); kitsch
(1926); langlauf (1927)
cross-country skiing; Neue
Sachlichkeit
(1929) a new pragmatic realism in the arts
developed in Germany in the 1920s; knackwurst
(1929); Schwerpunkt
(1930-69) focus, emphasis; quark
(1930-69); Sitzfleisch
(1930) staying-power,
determination, perseverence;
Mischsprache
(1930) a hybrid or mixed language; bierhaus
(1930); Schriftsprache
(1931); Urtext
(1932) an original text, the source text or
earliest version (urtext
appears in 1959); malerisch
(1933); loan
translation (1933) < Lehnübersetzung; abseil
(1933); Weltbild
(1934) view of life, world-view; Verstehen
(1934); Urheimat
(1934); Gestapo
(1934); Führer (1934); Wehrmacht
(1935) the collective name for
the German armed forces from 1929-1945; Rechtsstaat
(1935); Luftwaffe (1935); hausmaler
(1935); Volksgeist
(1936) the spirit characterizing
the thought or feeling of a nation or people; lederhosen
(1936); Kunstprosa
(1936) a highly stylised
literary prose; Lebensform
(1937) any human
activity that involves values of any kind; a style of living; Kunsthistoriker
(1937) art historian; autobahn
(1937); Untergang
(1938); Umgangssprache
(1938); U-bahn
(1938); völkisch
(1939) populist, nationalist or racist; Stammbaum
(1939); blitzkrieg (1939); Sieg
Heil (1940); panzer
(1940); Herrenvolk
(1940) the Master race in Nazi ideology; blitz
(1940); zwischenzug
(1941) an interim or temporising
move in chess; Künstlerroman
(1941) a Bildungsroman about an
artist; snorkel
(1947); Sicherheitsdienst
(1947) the security
division of the SS of Nazi Germany;
Kulturkreis
(1948); Schimpfwort
(1949); Stammbaumtheorie
(1954) a linguistic
pedigree theory of languages (> family-tree
theory, 1933); Mitsein
(1955) the concept
of a person’s being in its relationship with others; Quellenforschung
(1958); vorlaufer
(1961) a skiier
who sets the benchmark before a skiing competition begins by completing
the
course in question (> forerunner,
1949); spritzer (1961); Ostpolitik
(1961); Lebenswelt
(1962) the world of direct,
first-hand experience; glitch (1962); Weisswurst
(1963); zeitgeber
(1964); Untermensch
(1964); Umwelt
(1964); Kunstforschung
(1966) art history; über
alles (1967); Mittelstand
(1970-1990) something between extremes of size, middling size range; Westpolitik
(1970); Mitbestimmung
(1970) the right of worker participation in corporate management; Gastarbeiter
(1970); Tafelwein
(1972); Qualitätswein
(1972); hinterlander
(1973); Gott
im Himmel (1980) good
heavens!; du lieber
Gott
(1980) dear God!; lager (1987) concentration camp; Rottweiler
(1989);
Undated but from the period
1850-1960:
Rückbildung
> back-formation;
Lehnwort
> loanword;
Gastwort
a foreign word which retains its foreign spelling, prounciation
and meaning in another language, e.g. as in passé,
diva and leitmotiv
in English;
Fremdwort
a word that has undergone partial assimilation to the borrowing
language, e.g.
as in garage in English;
ii)
German loans
sorted by subject
SCIENCES
Wissenschaft
(1834) knowledge, learning, scholarship, science; Fach
(1842); Spielraum
(1921) the range of
variables considered in projecting the likelihood of an hypothesis;
Mineralogy,
Geology and Metallurgy
quartz
(1631); zinc (1641); cobalt
(1683); shale (1747); nickel
(1755); gneiss (1757); feldspar
(1757); hornblende (1770);
bergschrund (1843); horst
(1893); klippe
(1902); felsenmeer
(1905) a boulder field;
Physics,
Chemistry and Biology
seltzer
(1741); meerschaum (1784) Sepiolite,
a
hydrated magnesium silicate or a pipe made from this (> sea-foam,
1837); protein
(1838); paraffin (1838); rinderpest
(1865), > cattle pest
(1866); spectrometer
(1874); diesel (1894); glutwolke
(1914)
nuée ardente; zeitgeber
(1964); Umwelt
(1964);
ARTS
AND HUMANITIES
General
Humanities
masterpiece
(1579); Festschrift (1898); Neue
Sachlichkeit
(1929) a new pragmatic realism in the arts
developed in Germany in the 1920s; malerisch
(1933);
Music,
Sport and Games
krummhorn
(1694) an obsolete wind reed instrument; waltz
(1781); glockenspiel
(1825); alpenstock (1829) a long staff with a metal
point used in mountain
climbing; yodel (1838); zither
(1850); Lied (1852); Volkslied
(1858); vorspiel
(1876) prelude or overture; singspiel
(1876); Minnelied
(1876) a love song or lay; Nachschlag
(1879); klabberjass
(1892); zugswang
(1904) a situation in chess
where any move would result in disadvantage but the player is compelled
to do
so; langlauf (1927) cross-country skiing; zwischenzug
(1941) an interim or temporising
move in chess; snorkel
(1947); vorlaufer
(1961) a skiier
who sets the benchmark before a skiing competition begins by completing
the
course in question (> forerunner,
1949);
Philosophy
Grenzbegriff
(1787) a borderline concept; Vorstellung
(1807) an idea, image or mental picture; Naturphilosophie
(1817); Ding an sich
(1846) Thing-in-itself; Dasein
(1846) existence; an sich
(1846); Anschaung
(1856) sensory intuition; Weltanschauung
(1868) world-view; Mitsein
(1955) the concept
of a person’s being in its relationship with others; Lebenswelt
(1962) the world of direct, first-hand experience;
Psychology
Sehnsucht
(1847) yearning or wistful longing (> longing,
1955); Schadenfreude (1852) enjoyment of others’
misfortunes; Lebenslust
(1855) joie d’vivre;
Weltschmerz (1875); Grübelsucht
(1876)
an obsessive disorder in which even basic facts are questioned; gestalt
(1890); pleasure-pain (1894) < Lust-Unlust; Erlebnis
(1900-29) the mind’s identification with
its own emotions and feelings; gallows humour
(1901) < Galgenhumor;
einfühlung
(1904) empathy (> empathy,
1904); lebensraum (1905)
space considered necessary for the health and development of a nation
(> living room, 1934); Wehmut
(1907) sadness, melancholy, nostalgia; schmerz
(1911); Galgenhumor
(1912);
Literature,
Mythology and Folklore
kobold
(1635) a goblin or cave dwelling wight,
especially in
German folklore; Valkyrie (1768); Valhalla
(1768); Sturm und Drang
(1776) a passionate German literary movement in
the late 1700s (> Storm and Stress,
1855); Totentanz
(1789) the dance of death, Danse
macabre; Walpurgis Night (1822); Weltliteratur
(1827); swan song (1831) < Schwanengesang;
Germanist
(1831); nix (1833) a bathing spirit
in German folklore; Nachlass
(1842)
unpublished posthumous literary works of an author; foreword
(1842) <
Vorwort;
folklore
(1846) < Volkskunde;
poltergeist (1848); Märchen
(1871) a
fairy tale or folk-tale; leitmotif (1876); Fraktur
(1886); Götterdämmerung
(1909); Bildungsroman
(1910) a novel charting the maturation or mental and emotional
development of
its protagonist; Formgeschichte
(1923); Kunstprosa
(1936) a highly stylised
literary prose; Künstlerroman
(1941) a Bildungsroman about an
artist; Quellenforschung
(1958);
Linguistics
Wendish
(1617); Plattdeutsch
(1814); Indo-Germanic
(1826); Middle English (1836); Low German
(1838) < Plattdeutsch;
umlaut
(1844); ablaut (1849); word-lore
(1861) morphology and
word-formation < Wortlehre;
i-umlaut
(1870); soundlaw
(1874) < Lautgesetz;
loanword (1874) < Lehnwort; rückumlaut
(late
1800s?) > unmutation;
affricate (1880); anlaut
(1881) the
initial sound of a word or syllable; auslaut
(1882); breaking (1883) < Brechung;
folk etymology (1883); speech/linguistic
island (1888) < Sprachinsel;
Gutnish
(1892) pertaining to the Swedish
island of Gotland; its language; schwa (1895); Ursprache
(1908); isogloss (1925); Mischsprache
(1930) a hybrid or mixed language; Schriftsprache
(1931); Urtext
(1932) an original text, the
source text or earliest version (urtext appears in 1959); loan
translation (1933) <
Lehnübersetzung;
Umgangssprache
(1938); Stammbaum
(1939); Schimpfwort
(1949); Stammbaumtheorie
(1954) a linguistic pedigree theory
of languages (> family-tree theory,
1933); Rückbildung
(1850-1960) > back-formation;
Lehnwort
(1850-1960) > loanword; Gastwort
(1850-1960) a
foreign word which retains its foreign spelling, prounciation
and meaning in another language, e.g. as in passé,
diva and leitmotiv
in English; Fremdwort
(1850-1960) a word that has undergone partial assimilation to the
borrowing
language, e.g. as in garage in
English;
History,
Anthropology and Archaeology
foreworld (1796) primeval or ancient world, < Vorwelt; Indo-Germanic
(1826); Völkerwanderung
(1855); Kulturgeschichte (1876); Kunstgeschichte
(1892) art
history; Kunstforscher (1899) art historian; Neanderthaler
(1913); Urheimat (1934); Kunsthistoriker
(1937) art historian; Kunstforschung
(1966) art history;
Sociology
Gesellschaft
(1887) a society based on the rationally conceived duties of its
constituents; Gemeinschaft
(1887) a society based on community,
kinship or affection; Weltbild
(1934) view of
life, world-view; Verstehen
(1934); Volksgeist
(1936) the spirit characterizing the
thought or feeling of a nation or people; Lebensform
(1937) any human activity that involves values of any kind; a style of
living; völkisch
(1939) populist, nationalist or racist; Kulturkreis
(1948); Untermensch
(1964);
Politics
landgrave
(1516) a German count; ); junker
(1554) a
German nobleman; burgher (1568); Landtag
(1591) now refers to the convening of the parliament in certain German
states; huntmaster
(1691) < Jägermeister;
fatherland
(1791-1823) < Vaterland;
kaiser
(1807); ritter
(1824) a knight or member of the lower German nobility; Stadthaus
(1839) a German town hall; zollverein
(1843)
customs union; Bund (1850) federation or
association, especially political;
Vaterland
(1852); Reichstag (1867) the
lower German national parliamentary chamber; Weltstadt
(1870-99); hinterland (1890); Weltpolitik
(1903); hochgeboren
(1905); Drang
nach Osten (1906) the
imperialistic foreign policy of
Germany re. eastern Europe in the 1930s; realpolitik
(1914); Reich
(1921); Führer (1934); Rechtsstaat
(1935); Herrenvolk
(1940) the Master race in
Nazi ideology; Ostpolitik
(1961); Westpolitik
(1970); Mitbestimmung
(1970) the right of worker participation in corporate management; Gastarbeiter
(1970); lager (1987)
concentration camp;
Military
plunder
(1632 - Thirty Years’ War); jaeger, jäger
(1776) "German rifleman"; kriegsspiel
(1811) a type of military board-game; landsturm
(1814) "reserve force, militia, levies"; landwehr
(1815) "army reserve"; war game (1828) < Kriegsspiel;
war-lord
(1856) < Kriegsherr;
U-boat (1913); kamerad
(1914) used by
German soldiers in WWI as a cry of surrender; Schrecklichkeit
(1915) a policy of horror or terrorism, especially in war (> frightfulness (1914)); strafe
(1915); Gestapo (1934); Wehrmacht
(1935) the collective name for
the German armed forces from 1929-1945; Luftwaffe
(1935); blitzkrieg
(1939); Sieg
Heil
(1940); panzer (1940); blitz
(1940); Sicherheitsdienst
(1947) the security division of the SS
of Nazi Germany;
Food
and Drink
marzipan
(1494); sauerkraut (1617); pumpernickel
(1663); noodle
(1779); cookbook (1809); schnapps
(1818); pretzel (1824); kraut
(1845); Schinken
(1848); lager (1853); kuchen
(1854) a name for several varieties of coffee
cake; schnitzel (1854); liverwurst
(1855); blutwurst
(1856); wiener (1867); kirsch
(1869); frankfurter (1877); delicatessen
(1877); hamburger (1884); erbswurst
(1885); backfisch
(1888) a fish too small to
be boiled but large enough to be baked; sauerbraten
(1889) a dish of
marinated roasted beef (> sour beef
(1935)); wienerwurst (1889); strudel
(1893); Stollen
(1906); knackwurst (1929); quark
(1930-69); spritzer
(1961); Weisswurst
(1963); Tafelwein
(1972); Qualitätswein
(1972);
Everyday
and General
pfennig
(1547); hamster (1607); Schloss
(1617)
a German castle or manor house; ); Fräulein
(1689) a young unmarried (German) woman or girl; homesickness
(1756)
< Heimweh;
swindler (1774); nix (1789)
nothing; schema (1796); hausfrau
(1798); dummkopf
(1809); handbook
(1814) < Handbuch;
poodle (1820); living room
(1825) < Wohnzimmer;
semester
(1827); standpoint (1829) < Standpunkt;
doppelganger (1830); gasthof
(1832) a German hotel or country inn; gasthaus
(1834) a German inn or tavern; Gelehrte
(1836)
a scholar; mark (1839); dachshund
(1840); prosit
(1846); zeitgeist (1848); katzenjammer
(1849) hangover; Wirtschaft
(1850) domestic
economy, housekeeping; kindergarten (1852); gemütlich
(1852); Schmelz
(1854); Ewigkeit
(1857); unberufen
(1858); edelweiss
(1862); Lehrjahre
(1865) an informal term of
apprenticeship; rucksack (1866); liebling
(1868); Trinkhalle
(1873) room in a spa where
the water can be drunk; überhaupt
(1875) in
general, considered as a whole; ersatz (1875); liebchen
(1876); Wein,
Wieb
und Gesang
(1885); und so weiter
(1885); offprint (1885) < Abdruck;
seminar (1889); giro
(1890); wunderkind (1891); gemütlichkeit
(1892); volksfest
(1893); spiel (1896);
Weinstube
(1899) a small German saloon; Achtung
(1900s); wanderlust (1902); Schweinerei
(1906); Drang
(1906); quatsch
(1907); Stimmung
(1909) mood, atmosphere, ambiance; verboten (1912);
doctorand
(1912); gesundheit
(1914); echt
(1916); Doberman (1917); breakthrough
(1918) < Durchbruch;
spurlos
(1922) without a trace, from sight; nicht
wahr (1924); kitsch
(1926); Schwerpunkt
(1930-69) focus, emphasis;
Sitzfleisch
(1930) staying-power,
determination, perseverence;
bierhaus
(1930); abseil (1933); hausmaler
(1935); lederhosen (1936); autobahn
(1937); Untergang
(1938); U-bahn
(1938); glitch (1962); über
alles (1967); Mittelstand
(1970-1990) something between extremes
of size, middling size range; hinterlander
(1973); Gott
im Himmel (1980) good
heavens!; du lieber
Gott (1980)
dear God!; Rottweiler (1989);
*sources:
Barber,
Charles: The English Language: A
Historical Introduction. (Cambridge
Approaches to Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993;
Collins English
Dictionary (Millennium Edition), HarperCollins
Publishers, Glasgow,
1998;
Freeborn,
Dennis: From Old English to Standard
English. 2nd revised and
enlarged edition. London: Macmillan
Press Ltd., 1998;
Hoad, T.F. (ed.): The
Concise Oxford Dictionary of English
Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996;
Hughes,
Geoffrey: A History of English Words.
Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 2000;
Jespersen,
Otto: Growth and Structure of the
English Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1956;
Pfeffer, J.A & Cannon,
G.: German Loanwords in English.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994;
Serjeantson, M.S.: A
History of Foreign Words in English,
London, 1935;
Speake, J. (ed.): The
Oxford Dictionary of Foreign Words
and Phrases. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
©
Edward Smith 2011. E-mail the author
