Hot answers tagged connotation
15
"Jawohl" is a normal German word, used as a strong affirmative. It doesn't have a specifically Nazi background, but one of its main uses has always been in the military, including the Wehrmacht.
Wiktionary says:
drückt unbedingte Zustimmung aus (expresses unconditional agreement)
Google NGram shows it has been in use during all times since 1800.
I'd ...
12
Summary: Books with the title "Frohes Schaffen" have been published by an Austrian social-democratic publisher of children's books since 1925, so a Nazi origin seems unlikely. It's still quite possible that they used and popularized that phrase later, though.
There seems to be a book series that was published at least since 1925 with the title
Frohes ...
12
It's an expression of admiration and has a somewhat old feeling to it. I would mostly associate it with older people who managed to keep particularly fit despite their age.
It's perfectly fine to use this in everyday conversations, but it may sound a little bit patronizing/condescending if the person mentioned doesn't feel as old yet.
An example would be
...
10
"Jawohl" in General
Answering "Jawohl" in an everyday conversation with Otto Normalverbraucher would probably seem awkward, but not because of associations with Nazi Germany but because of its formal / militaristic connotations.
Jawohl, mein Kommandant!
"Jawohl, mein/Herr/Frau Kommandant" could be used in a joking way though there is no guarantee everyone ...
8
I don't know whether it originated from Nazi Propaganda, and honestly, I don't care. This never even crossed my mind. Even if it did, as you say, it seems to have lost all connotation.
I don't think we should let evil people dictate what words to use and which ones to avoid; we should not let them monopolize harmless phrases like this one. Indeed, I think ...
8
In einigen wenigen Berufsfeldern wird das Wort verwendet, um zu signalisieren, daß dem beschriebenen Mitarbeiter wesentliche Qualifikationen fehlen, die er nur auf dem regulären Weg zum Beruf hätte erwerben können.
Mir fällt als gängiges Beispiel dafür vor allem der Beruf des Lehrers ein, bei dem Quereinsteigern regelmäßig (berechtigt oder unberechtigt) ...
8
Man findet für jeden Begriff eine abwertende Bedeutung, vor allem wenn er sarkastisch verwendet wird. Manche Leute machen sich dann zu viele Gedanken.
Ich bin selbst Quereinsteiger in meinem Beruf. Ich bezeichen mich auch selbst als solchen. Das einzige "abwertende" ist, dass man ein geringeres Gehalt bekommt, als Leute die in diesem Beruf ausgebildet ...
8
4711 (pronounced "forty-seven eleven") is indeed a number that people of my age and older know very well because it's a well-known brand of Eau de Cologne ("Kölnisch Wasser").
815 is actually 08/15 (pronounced "null-acht fünfzehn") and an expression for something that is standard, "plain vanilla."
The saying has its origin in the name of a WW I machine ...
7
I'm going to go out on a limb and say no, emsig has no inherent ironic connotation at all. You could use it in an ironic way of course just like most other words.
However emsig may be slightly antiquated so you might get a funny look when applying it to someone. Especially because it means that someone just works and works and works and there is a lot to do ...
7
Oh yes, there is quite a distinction to make between these two words.
"Klassenkamerad" indicates a person who shares the same class with the person speaking. However, it doesn't say anything about the relationship between these two persons! They might be friends, but they also might be archenemies. It simply indicates the share the same class(es).
...
7
"Jawohl" is the more formal version of "Ja" used very commonly in the Bundeswehr without any connotation. It is also used as shorter version for "zu Befehl" (as you order / at your command) when accepting an order, which is rarely used nowadays.
Some examples in military context can be found here. As Germany had general conscription for quite a while, it ...
7
A literal translation of Weltanschauung is "world view." It is the prism ("spectacles" if you will) through which one views the world.
Ideologie refers to one's BELIEFS/ATTIUDES about the world. It stems from Weltanchauung, and is shaped by it, but is not the same. That is, Weltanshauung underpins Ideologie. One is cause, the other is effect.
For instance, ...
7
When used for a technology product the usage of "simpel" is not appropriate. Indeed it does have the subtle meaning of something to be very easy on one hand but on the other hand also to be not so sophisticated.
In the context of technology use e.g.:
es ist einfach zu bedienen (simple)
es ist leicht zu bedienen (easy)
es ist nicht schwer ...
7
Nowadays there is zero religious connotation with that word, simple as that. It's clearly understood as vermin, no more and no less.
In the Third Reich, calling Jews "Ungeziefer" was part of the dehumanizing propaganda war against them. Theoretically, that could make for a strenuous religious association, but even then, the intention was clearly to portrait ...
6
Both meanings are popular, but I can't think of a situation in which a) is intended and b) is understood. So the problem is not a possible misunderstanding.
However, to my ears, "simpel" does not sound like a word you want to have in an operating manual. It's not colloquial, but somehow a little blunt (can't find a better way to describe it). The standard ...
6
Eine generelle Ungebräuchlichkeit des Wortes Sachen für Kleidung in der unter d) geschilderten Situation ist mir nicht geläufig.
Sachen bezeichnet meines Erachtens die Gesamtheit der Kleidung oder eine nicht näher bestimmte Teilmenge davon. In den Situationen a), b) und c) ist dies der Fall.
Daher würde ich Sachen in Situation d) auch benutzen, wenn ich ...
5
Personally, I'd use "Ideologie" for some technical meanings (similar to "Philosophie"), while "Weltanschauung" seems to be only related to people. Duden lists both as synonym, but has this as the meaning for the latter:
Gesamtheit von Anschauungen, die die Welt und die Stellung des Menschen in der Welt betreffen
Entirety of views regarding the world ...
5
Klamotten ist umgangssprachlich. Es ist der im Alltagsgebrauch häufigste und verbreitetste Begriff für Kleidung, allerdings in formellen Situationen unpassend. Sprecher älter als ca. 50 Jahre sagen nicht Klamotten, sie sprechen von Kleidung. Klamotten wird in Österreich und der Schweiz nicht verwendet. In der Schweiz ist Kleider der äquivalente Begriff ...
5
I disagree with you that it doesn't change the meaning that much...
jemanden etwas lehren
means to teach something to somebody.
So you'd be building up new knowledge by teaching them.
Whereas
jemanden belehren
in most cases means that you're correcting somebody who thinks he knows, but is not really correct.
So you'd be straightening his facts.
...
5
There is a grammatical difference and a difference in meaning...
belehren
Belehren takes a person as a direct object in accusative case. If you want to include whatever is being taught that is done using the preposition über or hinsichtlich
Ich belehre den Mann über die Sache.
Belehren has a notion of completion... at least more than lehren has. ...
4
I think this article from the GfdS gives a good hint in its last paragraph where it speaks of a tautology, since Oskar can be derived from the Jiddish expression ossok for frech, so an Ossoker is a person who is frech by default and calling him frech again makes it even stronger, which again is enough to give the expression a negative connotation.
4
You can't build a sharp list of words and expressions which are taboo. Total is total unproblematisch in most cases. In combination with war (totaler Krieg) or in the phrase Wollt Ihr den totalen ... it is problematic.
But for a political person, many phrases remind them of special persons which used them in some context, and would avoid them therefore, ...
4
Kleider
Über der Unterwäsche getragene Bekleidung, daher auch Oberbekleidung genannt. Auch, und im Singular ausschließlich, ein spezielles einteiliges Kleidungsstück für Damen, das Ober- und Unterkörper bedeckt (Engl.: "dress").
Kleidung
Synonym zu Kleider, jedoch ausschließlich im Pluraletantum verwendete Bezeichnung für jedwede Oberbekleidung (Engl.: ...
4
The terminology "public viewing" has been in the English language for a long time. It can mean something which is shown to the public for the first time which is normally kept for private viewing only. A public viewing of a famous picture normally in private possession or for that matter any important object not normally available for the public to view. In ...
3
Both Klassenkamerad and Schulfreund is used by third people to refer to someone who just went to the same class, but Schulfreund is also sometimes used in the narrower sense of specifying that this is a friend you know from school.
Note that it is not uncommon to falsely use friend like this, compare the joke:
Wie steigert man Feind?
Feind, Todfeind, ...
3
For me, a Klassenkamerad is somebody in the same class, where I get along with (so, we have a friendly relationship. I wouldn't use it for somebody I do not like - apart form sarcastic usage).
A Schulfreund is a friend from schooltimes, not necessarily in the same class. The relationship is closer then a Klassenkamerad.
A Klassenkamerad is defined by ...
3
I think "Klassenkamerad" is very close to "Mitschüler". Both meaning just someone who happened to be in the class in school as someone else, nothing said about the relation between both.
"Schulfreund" is used to denote some positive relations, and spending time together out of school.
3
The spike from around 2000 onwards comes from the German orthography reform of 1996, which changed the officially correct spelling of "selbständig". The reasoning for the reform was to make German a more logical and consistent language.
Selbständig in particular was chosen for its change because it consists of two different roots: selbst and Stand, ...
3
We should point out that it may well be possible that "Oskar" originated from Jiddish ossik or Ossoker but this view seems not yet scientifically proven. Other explanations are that it may be a reference to Oscar Blumethal (Duden) a sharp tongued and humorous Berlin critic. From the closeness to other idioms that use Bolle it may also be that just a common ...
3
I cannot imagine that someone would be offended when being called "emsig". But I assume that "emsig" is more and more shifting to ironic use only because it is an old-fashioned word and mostly used in conjunction with ants, bees and work.
The Duden also shows, that "emsig" is often used ironically, probably because (as musiKk mentioned) the imagination of ...
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