That is a mouthful

   

The German language, which has always been known for its tendency to create long compound words, recently marked the passing of the longest word in its lexicon. The 63 letter long monster,  Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, was the German word for a "law for the delegation of monitoring beef labeling". The law for which this word was created was recently repealed, and with it no longer in place, there is no need to keep using the word.

     With Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz passing out of use, that leaves Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften, an insurance company that provides legal protection, as the longest German word in use. If you are wondering how in the world you would pronounce Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, you are not alone. Fortunately, the Telegraph out of the U.K. has provided a sample of how it would be said:


   


1. http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/-em-rindfleischetikettierungs-berwachung-saufgaben-bertragungsgesetz-em-germany-says-goodbye-to-its-longest-word/276492/
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/10095976/Germany-drops-its-longest-word-Rindfleischeti....html

Well, that's to the point

     The German language continues to amaze me with the words they can come up with. They seem to have a knack for combining sometimes complex or long ideas in to just one word, see my previous post about the German word Kummerspeck. Recently, I discovered another interesting German word whose meaning, unlike Kummerspeck, can be very easily deduced, even by a non German speaker.

     The English phrase "birth control pill" directly translates directly to the German word Antibabypille. It would seem that who ever came up with the word wanted to make sure there was no miscommunication about what you were being given.











1. http://en.bab.la/dictionary/german-english/antibabypille
2. http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Antibabypille.html
3. http://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/1bxr7p/til_the_german_word_for_birth_control_pill_is/
4. http://translate.google.com/#en/de/birth%20control%20pill
5. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibabypille

What does that mean?

     Some languages are better at illustrating certain ideas better than English. For example, it can take a whole sentence to let some one know in English that you have been gaining weight because you are depressed or overly emotional. The Germans however have been able to take this thought, and condense it into a single word:
Kummerspeck.

     Kummerspeck is a word that is made up of two other German words. The first is kummer, which is german for grief. The second part of the word, speck, is the German word for bacon. So if you were to translate kummerspeck literally it would mean "grief bacon".

     If you think about it, this combination makes complete sense. Bacon tends to be a really fatty food, and if you eat a bunch of it because you are emotional or grieving, then you are bound to gain weight. If English had more stuff like this, maybe it would be easier to get across what we are trying to say.


1. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kummerspeck
2. http://images.cheezburger.com/completestore/2009/9/15/128975413506387435.jpg