If your mom embarrasses you in front of your friends, you're probably going to have a honigkuchenpferd-looking smile. 5. Honigkuchenpferdīy dissecting this word, you have 'horse-shaped honey cake,' but it really means to have a giant dorky grin on your face. The word Erbsen means 'peas' and Zähler means 'tally.' Therefore, an Erbsenzähler literally describes a person who counts their peas. Īnyone who is obsessed with details and a bit of a control freak would be referred to as an Erbsenzähler by Germans.

German police heavily guarded the d erelict Eastern train stations, which were surrounded by barbed wire and called Geisterbahnhöfe. Simply cutting this word in half, you have geister meaning 'ghost' and bahnhof meaning 'station.' However, the conjoined word has a darker meaning that stems from the Cold War-era when free movement between East and West Germany was severed with the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1 961. In German, the word Frühj ahr means 'springtime,' and Müdigkeit means 'tiredness.' Conjoined, Frühjahrsmüdigkeit is 'springtime lethargy.' 3. This 18-letter word is used to describe a general sense of weariness in the springtime, specifically between mid-March through mid-April. experiences a Sauregurkenzeit during Congress' 5-week summer recess. This is the 'off-season' where there is nothing happening because everyone is away. SauregurkenzeitĪ typical German vacation, which can last anywhere from 3-6 weeks in July through August, is referred to as the Sauregurkenzeit. This literally translates to 'pickle time,' possibly because cucumbers come into season in the summer. Here are some mehr of our favorite German words: 1.

In honor of the 181st Oktoberfest that kicked off in Munich earlier this week, we have entmystifiziert or 'demystified' our favorite Deutsch expressions that have no clear English meaning.

Great german words in english