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I didn't want to open this, but Google couldn't help me.

I remember seeing this scary long word during programming presentation in Hamburg and I it translates to fear of major version update. I though that it was common knowledge for German developers, but I was wrong.

Still, it was presented to me in this way, so I keep insisting on finding the answer.

One major clue is that is starts with Haupt. The idea behind the word is that developers are scared of breaking changes, so they would do anything to decline or postpone any major updates of their software.

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  • You should tell us which word you have seen.
    – Paul Frost
    Commented Jul 13, 2022 at 23:29

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Just like you can create compound words like “major version update fear” ad hoc in English, you can do so in German. The difference is that in German the different parts are not written as individual words separated by spaces. And sometimes an “s” or something gets put in between the parts to connect them better. So I can say “Hauptversionswechselangst” (I used “Wechsel” only to make it more German sounding than “Update” or “Aktualisierung”) but that does not mean that German has a specific word for the fear of major version updates, just that German combines nouns differently.

By the way, even though I just made the word up, Google Translate translates it just fine, to “major version change anxiety”.

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  • thank you for the explanation. I guess I had the wrong impression, as I though that it is a word that is somehow part of the common IT knowledge. There was shared laughter in the audience as the word is both correct and long :)
    – Dejan Toteff
    Commented Jul 8, 2022 at 14:15
  • @DejanToteff, it is of course possible that there is such a word that I am just not aware of :)
    – Carsten S
    Commented Jul 8, 2022 at 14:18
  • It still bugs me that nobody know this, so I might had been taken for a ride :) Anyway, thank you for the answer and I will accept it as it answers my question.
    – Dejan Toteff
    Commented Jul 8, 2022 at 16:01
  • @DejanToteff Best guess is that the person presenting had created that word. This explains why nobobody knows it; it also explains the laughing - it was a good joke to use a feature of the German language that many learnes of German fear, in order to create an overly complex, long and hairy word to denotate the fear of a potentially hairy process.
    – Jonathan Herrera ♦
    Commented Jul 8, 2022 at 17:04
  • Thank you @JonathanScholbach as that seems like the most logical conclusion. Half of the audience weren't native speakers so it makes sense to use this technique to increase the spirit.
    – Dejan Toteff
    Commented Jul 8, 2022 at 17:30

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