ENGLEUTSCH?

from World Wide Words

ENGLEUTSCH?

Though the influx of English words into German has been great enough to result in a mixed language sometimes called Denglish, the flow the other way has not been so sizeable, though we do have Schadenfreude, Kindergarten and Zeitgeist, plus a good number of technical terms.

The Goethe Institute in London has been running a competition to find the German word whose acceptance into English would most improve our language. Some good suggestions were put forward, including "Backpfeifengesicht", a face that makes you want to hit it, "Torschlusspanik", a door-closing panic, a fear of being left on the shelf, and "Kummerspeck", "grief bacon", for an excessive gain in weight caused by overeating emotional problems.

The most frequent suggestion was "Ohrwurm", literally an ear worm, a tune so catchy that you can't get it out of your head.

However, the winner, announced on 8 December, was "Fachidiot". Literally "subject idiot", it refers to a person who has become such an academic specialist, so deeply immersed in his subject, that he has lost all interest in or understanding of what is going on in the world around him.

We do have "nerd", of course, though that hardly plumbs the same depths of unworldliness.