Photo: Gábor Bejó. Meaning: That’s the bottom line. That is the most important thing.
This will end like the Hornberg shooting.
Photo: schoeneaussicht.com. Meaning: A much-heralded venture comes to an unceremonious end and yields no result. Origin: According to an episode, the citizens of Hornberg in the Black Forest were expecting the Duke’s visit, but by the time he arrived they had already shot all the gunpowder they intended to use for the salute, because they had mistaken various trivial events that had caused clouds of dust on the road for the approaching entourage.
Hops and malt is lost with someone.
Photo: depositphotos.com. Meaning: Someone is a hopeless case, despite all efforts of education or training. Origin: From the language of the brewer, where these two ingredients were considered the most important in the production of beer. If the brewing result was poor, the hops and malt were lost.
To be on the forest path.
Photo: agencecormierdelauniere.com. Meaning: to be on the wrong track, to be in error. Origin: Felled logs cut deep furrows into the forest floor during transport. These wooden paths, which suddenly end in the forest, lead hikers astray.
Getting from the little wooden piece to the tiny stick.
Photo: giessener-allgemeine.de. Meaning: constantly moving from one subject to another, being fickle.
Sky-high jubilating – dad to death.
Photo: herzogtum-direkt. Meaning: Up one moment – down the next; on top of the world, or in the depths of despair; subject to strong mood swings between sheer euphoria and depression. Origin: Based on the drama ‘Egmont’ III, 2 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
Someone’s heart slipped into the trousers.
Photo: spielwiki.de. Meaning: someone’s heart sank; someone got really scared and gave up on his plan.
This place looks like Hempel’s under the sofa!
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: There is absolute disorder / uncleanliness here. Origin: One version says that around 1900, a showman named Hempel was not particularly careful about cleanliness and was therefore thrown out of the fairground.
To give one’s last shirt for someone.
Photo: swr.de. Meaning: To sacrifice oneself for someone
To light someone home.
Afbeelding: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To reject someone or someone’s suggestions with clear rebuke. Origin: In the 16th century, the expression meant to accompany someone home with a lantern or torch. At a time when there was no street lighting, it was sometimes dangerous to walk through town in the pitch dark without a torch or something similar. For people without one, there was a service called a home lighter, which was offered for a fee. In some places it was also forbidden to leave the house without lighting at all. In the moonlight, this need for path lighting could be dispensed with if the visitor left unexpectedly late. When street lighting became more common, the expression took on a different meaning when you wanted to finally get rid of someone. In this way, linguistic usage has turned “home lighting” into a negative since the 18th century.
It is drafting like pike soup.
Photo: Nitish Patel. Meaning: There is an annoyingly strong cold draft blowing through the room. Origin: Some experts suspect a corruption of the Yiddish hech supha = strong storm.
To be the pike in the carp pond.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: To play an invigorating or disruptive role in a sluggish community. Origin: As a predatory fish, the pike ensures that the carp do not get too fat.
To lie on the lazy / rotten skin.
Foto: karriere.sn.at. Meaning: relax, unwind, idle, leave work behind. Origin: Both lazy and rot are referred to by the word faul in German.
To get under the hood.
Photo: kinderwdr.de. Meaning: to get married. Origin: In the past, a hood was the symbol of married women.
To show someone what a rake is.
Photo: youtube. Meaning: To show someone your superiority or bring them back down to earth. Origin: The phrase refers to a popular parable in which a farmer’s son, who has learned a bit of Latin, pretends that he no longer knows the colloquial term for a rake. However, when he steps on a rake and hurts himself, he immediately shouts: “Damned rake!”
Hans-Steam in every alley.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: An active, versatile and busy person, a jack-of-all-trades (with a rather negative connotation). Origin: The expression may come from the fresh cake that was brought home steaming on St John’s Day after being baked in the bakery. The expression Hans in allen Gassen appears in literature in the 1667 novel The Adventurous Simplicissimus by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen (Book 2, Chapter 7). The extended expression Hans Dampf in allen Gassen eventually became widely known through the 1814 story of the same name by the German writer and Swiss Heinrich Zschokke (1771-1848). The protagonist in it is ‘Hans, the son of mayor Peter Dampf’, who combines the above-mentioned characteristics. Lutz Röhrich also writes that Hans Dampf was a real, well-known personality in Gotha in the 19th century.
To lay down someone’s craft.
Photo: Rodrigo Andrade 3380. Meaning: to stop someone’s activities. Origin: Only guild members were allowed to perform certain tasks, but they could also be banned from performing these tasks any longer if they committed offences.
To meddle with someone’s craft.
Photo: nieuwsblad.be. Meaning: interfering with someone’s work, especially with insufficient skill. Origin: In the Middle Ages, a meddler was someone who secretly performed work reserved for a guild-approved craftsman.
This has neither hand nor foot.
Photo: vitaminesperpost: Meaning: This is unsuitable or ill-conceived.
To put your hand in the fire for someone.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Origin: Presumably in reference to the trial by fire, in which one’s own innocence had to be proven. According to legend, Gaius Mucius Scaevola saved Rome by burning his hand over an open fire and greatly impressed his opponents with the courage he demonstrated.
Go to the other side!
Photo: Wal 172619. Origin: At the time of the German partition, stereotypical West German response to critical questions about conditions in their own country to quell a discussion and insinuate that the critic would have sympathy for the situation in the GDR. After German reunification, the saying became meaningless. Jokingly, it is still sometimes used.
To throw the gun into the cornfield.
Photo: quiziet.com. Meaning: Throw in the towel, throw the helve behind the hatchet, give up the ghost, surrender, give up on something, stop doing something, give up; often used when this is premature or unwarranted at the slightest obstacle. Origin: When soldiers discard their guns, they no longer feel like fighting.
To spend the bespangled weeks.
Image: Andreas Grönberg – AI. Meaning: to spend the honeymoon. Origin: The term is probably derived from Old High German filtarazan (‘caressing’) and Middle High German vlittern (‘intimate giggling, whispering and caressing’). Some linguists place the origin of the word in the city of Nuremberg, where the bride was strung and fripperies, gilding and flour gold were thrown in front of the bride and groom as they left the church.
To make fisimatents.
Photo: hbksaar.de. Meaning: making a fuss, doing stupid things, fooling around, making excuses or frivolous objections; in the broadest sense, all actions that cause circumstances or problems. Origin: The origin of the expression is not certain. Several theories exist. One goes back to the Latin official language of the late Middle Ages: Visae patentes (verified documents) became a mockery of excessive bureaucracy and was first mentioned in 1499. Other linguists mention the Early New High German word fisiment = meaningless ornament (on a coat of arms). The idiom was also used by parents for their young daughters when they went out for a night out with friends: ‘Don’t make fisiments!’ Thus, the following folk-ethymological explanation is given: When Germany was largely under French occupation in the early 19th century, French soldiers would repeatedly try to lure German girls to their camp to pass the time, for example with the invitation: ‘Visitez ma tente’ (visit my tent) or ‘Voici ma tente’ (see my tent there). So when a night out was planned, the young women were given a ‘don’t make fisi ma tente’ to take with them. Popular etymology also explains it as an excuse used by late passers-by when checked by the French military police: ‘Je viens de visiter ma tante’ (I just visited my aunt). popular etymology also explains it as an excuse used by late passers-by when checked by the French military police: ‘Je viens de visiter ma tante’ (I have just visited my aunt).
Neck and leg fracture!
Photo: brigitte.de. Meaning: Hope nothing happens to you! Origin: Corrupted from the Yiddish hatslokhe un brokhe, meaning ‘luck and blessing’.
Someone had the red rooster on the roof.
Photo: tumblr. Meaning: Someone’s house was on fire. Origin: The blazing flames are reminiscent of a rooster’s red comb.
To look for or find the hair in the soup.
Image by Christal Koch
To have groats in the head.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: to have (common) sense, to be intelligent. Origin: The word kritz (D), used in the 16th century, meant intelligence.
To do the split.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: collapse, give way, go to ruin, die. Origin: When the legs of a chair bend outwards as if it were in a splits, it no longer provides support.
To let grass grow over something.
Photo: Mary Bettini Blank. Meaning: To let something fall into oblivion; to let time heal wounds.
To let the good Lord be a good man.
Photo: Mr. Clean. Meaning: not caring much about anything or letting something run its course without concern when intervention is required.
To put something on the gold scale.
Photo: tenderteam. Meaning: Taking something (especially words) very precisely or too precisely, taking something too seriously. Origin: The golden scale was one of the most accurate measuring instruments, even for the smallest quantities.
To stand rifle at the foot.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: to stand ready, to be ready to spring into action at any moment. Origin: From the command language of the army.
For prospering or decay.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: for better or for worse. Origin: From the Low German legal language of the Middle Ages.
To shift down a gear.
Photo: Andreas Lischka. Meaning: Taking it easy; working less hard.
Someone’s bile is running over.
Image: Iffany – AI . Meaning: someone gets angry. Origin: When someone is excited, the liver increases its bile production.
It is five minutes before twelve.
Photo: Teodor Buhl. Meaning: It is high time. It is almost too late to intervene.
That can be said with good reason.
Photo: suederelbe24.be. Meaning: That can rightly be said. Origin: A German twin formula known as far back as the Middle Ages, reinforcing the word Recht (right, reason). Fug, which today appears only in this expression, separate from its opposite ‘Unfug’ (nonsense, mischief, pranks, devilry, monkey tricks), means propriety or appropriateness.
To stand on a good foot with someone.
Photo: pietersgilde.nl. Meaning: friendly intercourse, being able to get a lot done from someone.
The work has borne fruits.
Photo: Peggy Choucair
Bird, eat or die.
Photo: Angelika. Meaning: You have no choice, there is no alternative. ebt no choice, there is no alternative. Origin: Goes back to birds kept in cages and forced to eat the food offered to them to avoid starvation.
Peace, joy, pancakes.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: A superficially intact and peaceful, overly harmonious situation in which problems are overlooked. Origin: The origin of this expression is not clear. Even after launching a contest, the Society for the German Language (GfdS) could not find a verifiable explanation. One of the oldest written references can be found in the June 1959 satirical magazine Eulenspiegel, in the section Die Theatereule. In it, screenwriter, satirist and critic Carl Andrießen gives an ironic and derogatory critique of Gustav von Wangenheim’s student comedy, which he ends with the sentence: ‘In the end, as it should be, peace, joy, pancakes and applause.’ Peace, joy, pancakes experienced a revival in 1989 when it was proclaimed by Dr Motte as the motto for the first Love Parade, which was initially needed mainly so that the parade could be declared a political demonstration. ‘Peace’ stood for disarmament, “joy” for music as a means of international understanding and “pancakes” for a fair distribution of food.
To talk in Fraktur.
Photo: freefontsvault.com. Meaning: speaking unambiguously, expressing an unpleasant opinion without embellishment, speaking in clear, precise terms, without beating around the bush and without using euphemisms, expressing one’s opinion directly and bluntly. Origin: The idiom is probably based on the fact that German but not foreign-language texts were written in Fraktur, so the meaning ‘express his opinion clearly and unambiguously’ was probably a distinction from ‘speak in a foreign language’. However, the shape of the font (Fraktur = broken and angular; Latin alphabet = round) may also have played a role, equating the angular font with a rough tone.
To have fluff in the head.
Photo: Bobby Crim. Meaning: having crazy ideas, unrealistic plans. Origin: Fluff ( Flusen = German ) is flying flakes of wool or fibre from the cotton plant. The unrealistic plans of mostly young people are considered to fly high and unsteady like fluff in the wind.
A bottle.
Photo: OpenClipart-Vectors. Meaning: useless colleague, employee or team member. Origin: Literally derived from the Italian word fiasco = bottle. A bottle was hung around the neck of singers and actors as a mockery after failed performances.
To step into the little grease bowl.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Making a blunder, making a misstep, embarrassing oneself, accidentally doing something embarrassing. Origin: In farms, there used to be a grease cup between the door and the stove, used to grease wet boots. You weren’t supposed to accidentally step in it.
To be away from the window.
Photo: evangelinar. Meaning: having become irrelevant, having nothing more to say. Origin: Before television was invented, rulers showed themselves to the people from an open window. ‘Away from the window’ therefore means no longer being in the spotlight or having power.
Someone’s skins are swimming away.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI Meaning: Someone can no longer cope with the situation. Origin: From the furrier who washed his tanned hides in running water.
To turn one’s flag according to the wind.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: behaving opportunistically. Origin: From the language of windmills, where the blades were always placed in the wind to maximise the effect.
We haven’t reached the end of the flagpole yet.
Photo: fotocommunity. Meaning: We have not yet reached the end of the line (often with the implicit warning that much more effort is needed). Origin: Derived from the flag ceremony.
A grey eminence.
Image: Peter van Geest – AI. Meaning: Someone who pulls the strings in the background.
Something is in the bucket.
Photo: brittywing. Meaning: Something has been broken, gone wrong, messed up. Origin: Something has ended up in the bin ( also in a figurative sense ).
To make oneself out of the dust.
Photo by Everaldo A. de Brito. Meaning: to run off, to hop off, to leave quickly without anyone noticing. Origin: A lot of dust was thrown up in the tumult of battle and it was easier for friends and foes to get to safety unnoticed.
To write something in someone’s register.
Photo by StartupStockPhotos. Meaning: To give someone a strong advice, to make someone take something to heart
To spin sailor’s yarn.
Photo by fotocommunity.de. Meaning: to spin a yarn; to tell fantastic, fictional or untrue stories. Origin: From the sailor’s language, where whimsical stories were told during the repair work on the reef.
He who sleeps in a silver bed has golden dreams.
Photo by nader.com
Snow of yesterday.
Photo by Alina Kebkal. Meaning: Outdated knowledge
Sich ins Schneckenhaus zurückziehen.
Foto von Spenden Welcome. Meinung: sich in sich selbst zurückziehen oder in räumliche Isolation begeben, z.B. aufgrund von Enttäuschung oder Demütigung, der Außenwelt (vorübergehend) nicht zugänglich zu sein oder sich davor zu schützen
To be off the roll.
Photo by Rob Duin. Origin: The term comes from cycling, where an exhausted motor-paced racer loses contact with the spacer roller of the motorcycle in front.
To look at the radishes from below.
Photo by naturfotografen-forum.de. Meaning: Be dead and in the grave.
To write oneself something behind one’s ears.
Photo by youtube.com. Meaning: To remember something important very well
To still be green behind the ears.
Photo by Engin Akyurt. Meaning: To be a greenhorn
To stand like the ox in front of the barn door.
Photo by geocaching.com. Meaning: To be dumbfounded, to be unable to react, to have no idea how to proceed
The choice between plague and cholera.
Photo by Pablo Garcia Saldaña
To have neither hand nor foot.
Photo by nrc.nl. Meaning: To be half-baked
Wash my fur but don’t make me wet!
Photo by fotocommunity.de. Meaning: The attitude of people who like the general idea (or pretend to like it) but balk at bearing the unpleasant consequences.
Ein Brett vor dem Kopf haben.
Foto von finanzinferno.de. Bedeutung: Schrullig sein
A louse ran over someone’s liver.
Photo by fotocommunity.de. Meaning: Someone is in a bad mood for no apparent reason.
Door Peter
Mensenmens, zoon, echtgenoot, vader, opa.
Spiritueel, echter niet religieus.
Ik hou van golf, wandelen, lezen en de natuur in veel opzichten.
Onderzoeker, nieuwsgierig, geen fan van de mainstream media (MSM).
