“Don't Give Me Any Flak”: Words Borrowed from German

The slang expression “Don’t give me any flak” is heard frequently today, with “flak” understood to mean criticism, opposition, or “a hard time.” But what is “flak,” really? And is it spelled flak or flack?

In previous posts, Ms. Picky has discussed words that Americans borrowed from France, but of course many American English words have been brought not only from other parts of Europe, but also from other parts of the world. Some borrowed words have become such a part of our language that we don't give a thought either to how they were derived, or their inherent nuances particular to the languages they were taken from.

Flak is actually an acronym for a much-longer German word that was the name of the German anti-aircraft batteries of guns used against the Allies during World War II. It was taken from the initial letters of the parts of the  compound word FLiegerAbwehrKanone. It’s not clear whether the acronym was created by the Germans manning the guns or by the Allies they targeted, but it certainly would have been expedient for both sides to shorten the long German word to flak (properly spelled without a c, since the initial was taken from “Kanone.”). Some other words borrowed from the German appear below. Some of them are interesting for their origins, some for their sentiments.

Next week, Ms. Picky will discuss some borrowed words that are just as familiar—if not more so—than these German words are, but that come from an altogether different corner of the world.

Angst. (Pronounced the way it’s spelled.) Broadly used today to mean a state of anxiety or feeling of dread. Originally, however, angst was an existentialist term used to express the conflict between hope and anguish about the impossible struggle of life.

Ersatz. (Pronounced air-ZATZ.) An imitation, or a poor substitute for something else of superior quality. The word was first widely used during World War I, when the Allies' naval blockade of Germany forced the Germans to develop substitutes for such provisions as rubber or heating fuel, but, during World War II, it was used more for food substitutes when the originals were unavailable. “Ersatz coffee,” for example, was a coffee substitute made from grain or chicory.

Gotterdammerung. (Pronounced got-ter-DAM-er-ung.) The Norse mythic “Twilight of the Gods,” used metaphorically when some powerful person or group has a cataclysmic or apocalyptic downfall. In the press in recent years, the word has been used mostly in connection with financial events. In the German, there is an umlaut over the o: Götterdammerung. Americans usually dispense with the umlaut, because they don’t understand its pronunciation implications and because there’s no umlaut on an American keyboard.

Kaput. (Pronounced kah-PUT, and often accompanied by the gesture of a finger drawn across the throat, simulating beheading.) Finished, incapacitated, or broken. From the original German kaputt, which means “done for,” which was in turn taken from the French “être capot,” not to have made a single trick in the French card game piquet.

Masochism. (Pronounced MASS-o-kiz’m.) Taken from the German word Masochismus, which was coined in1890 by psychiatrist Richard Freiherr von Krafft-Ebing, who derived it from the name of a person—one Leopold Ritter von Sacher-Masoch, an Austrian novelist who wrote about libidinous pleasure derived from humiliation or pain.

Schadenfreude. (Pronounced SHAHD-en-froyd.) A particularly wonderful word to describe a particularly nasty emotion: the enjoyment of someone else’s misfortune. We have no English word to express the sentiment.

Wunderkind. (Pronounced VUN-der-kind, with the i in the last syllable pronounced like the i in kin.) A child prodigy, or, cynically, a “bright young man.”

Zeitgeist. (Pronounced ZITE-geist, with geist having the long i sound of the i in light.) The spirit of a particular period and place in history, as expressed through its literature and philosophy. The television show Mad Men expresses the Zeitgeist of the advertising business in New York in the1960s. The musical Cabaret expressed the Zeitgeist of Berlin in the 1930s.

Next Week’s Post: English words taken from Hindi and Urdu.