German English Words: A

abseil v.i., n.

from abseilen "to rope down": to rappel; a descent by rappelling [German ab-, "down" + Seil, "rope, line"]. Abseil is chiefly British and Australian; rappel is chiefly American. This is one of the very few words that come from a German verb. Abseiling is now even used in its English form in German to mean specifically the new, trendy sport. This entry suggested by malacalypse the younger.

"It is also an excellent vantage point from which to watch Samuel L. Jackson, who has taken everyone in a neighbouring building hostage and is fighting off helicopters, while men abseil down the building and a SWAT team opens fire from a barge in the middle of the river." "States and the film industry: Lures and enticements", The Economist, Mar. 14, 1998.
"It [canyoning] involves following a stream from the top of a canyon to the bottom by jumping off low cliffs, abseiling over waterfalls and zipping down natural rock waterslides." Daffyd Roderick, "Travel Watch: Detour", Time International, Oct. 18, 1999, p. 8.
"The boys' companion Tiggy Legge-Bourke, 33, will be on hand (though presumably not for sports outings after her recent blunder in allowing the princes [William and Harry] to abseil--rappeling headfirst down a steep incline--without helmets) as will their cousins Zara, 17, and Peter Phillips, 20, Princess Anne's children." Anne-Marie O'Neill et al., "A Lesson In Loss", People, Aug. 31, 1998, p. 48.
"You don't have to abseil down a corporate skyscraper to join in. The World Bank bonds boycott is a campaign to cut World Bank funds off at source, in the spirit of the anti-apartheid movement." "Campaign: Spank the Bank", New Internationalist, Sep. 2001.
"However at the end of last year, Toplis was asked if he was interested in attempting a 140 ft abseil to raise money for the Anthony Nolan Trust." Andrea Kon, "Jumping for Joy", Vavo, Jan. 29, 2001.
"In the 1990s, taking your team to learn to abseil down a cliff face, battle with paint balls or build a raft to cross a river were vaunted as the way to bond teams and get them to work effectively together." Annie Gurton, "An exercise in bonding", Computer Weekly, Nov. 9, 2000.
"The event was managed by youth consultancy Cake, which persuaded Spice Girl Mel C, and Richard Branson to abseil down the front of the store." Sue Levy, "Media expansion tests PR tracking", Marketing, Feb. 24, 2000.

affenpinscher n.

from Affenpinscher "monkey terrier": a breed of dog. See also Doberman pinscher, pinscher.

"For the breeders of the 2,620 champion canines (from affenpinschers to Yorkies) competing in American dogdom's Super Bowl, the potential payoff was worth it--not the prize money (there is none) but the bragging rights." "Up Front: Kennel Nation", People, Feb. 24, 1997, p. 50.
"In the unlikely event that Johnny doesn't make it out of his breed, Love predicts a free-for-all among a giant schnauzer (Ch. Skansen's Tristan II), a white standard poodle (Ch. Lake Cove That's My Boy), an Afghan bitch (Ch. Tryst of Grandeur), an English springer spaniel (Ch. Salilyn 'N Erin's Shameless) and her long shot, the affenpinscher Ch. Yarrow's Super Nova." Franz Lidz, "Scorecard/Dogs: Party Animals", Sports Illustrated, Feb. 7, 2000, p. R14.
Affenpinscher Champions, 1968-1998, Jan Linzy, 1999.
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ahnentafel n.

from Ahnentafel "ancestor chart": a type of chart used in genealogy that uses a particular numbering system for all ancestors of the main person [German Ahn, Ahne, "ancestor" + Tafel, "table, chart"]. This entry suggested by G. Victor Paulson.

"Ahnentafel Numbers Are not as Mysterious as they Seem", Anneliese Graebner Anderson, Missouri State Genealogical Association Journal, Winter 1995, p. 52-53.
"Sosa-Stradonitz System OR Ahnentafel", Richard A. Pence, 1995.
"What is an Ahnentafel?", Allan Gilbertson.

alpenglow n.

from Alpenglühen "Alpine glow": a reddish-purple glow often seen on mountain tops just before sunrise or after sunset.

"At length, toward the end of the second day, the Sierra Crown began to come into view, and when we had fairly rounded the projecting headland before mentioned, the whole picture stood revealed in the flush of the alpenglow." John Muir, The Mountains of California, 1894.
"We had heard the heavy detonation of the slide about the hour of the alpenglow, a pale rosy interval in a darkling air, and judged he must have come from hunting to the ruined cliff and paced the night out before it, crying a very human woe." Mary Austin, The Land of Little Rain, 1903, p. 130.
"But no painter ever laid such colours on his canvas as those which are seen here when the cool evening shadows have settled upon the valley, all gray and green, while the mountains shine above in rosy Alpenglow, as if transfigured with inward fire." Henry Van Dyke, Little Rivers: A Book of Essays in Profitable Idleness.
"Alpenglow suffuses many of the photos, from Mono Lake in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Annapurna Range in Nepal to a reflecting pond in Alaska's Denali National Park: eerie almost extraterrestrial pinks, mauves and purples." Robert F. Jones, "Books: Photographer with an Eye for Adventure", Sports Illustrated, Dec. 25, 1989, p. 18.
"A few innocent-looking clouds are sliding in from the west, a nice accent that helps fire the peaks with alpenglow." Steve Howe, "This is no picnic", Backpacker, Aug. 1, 1996, p. 64.
"Because what we'd miss even more than the peaks covered in alpenglow, even more than the sparkle of sun on the waves, is the furious meeting of rock and water, the high drama and often unspeakable beauty the two [man and woman] produce when they stand side by side." Pam Houston, "Why Women Love Men", Men's Health, Sep. 1, 1996, p. 132.
"In fact, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson and Catherine Zeta-Jones all owe their alpenglow to [beautician Lily] Garfield." Suzanne Brown, "Beauty Talk/Black Book: Height Of Luxury", InStyle, Apr. 1, 2001, p. 324.

alpenhorn n.

See alphorn.

alpenstock n.

from Alpenstock "Alps stick": a strong iron-pointed staff used by mountain climbers. See also Birkenstock.

"The little boy had now converted his alpenstock into a vaulting pole, by the aid of which he was springing about in the gravel and kicking it up not a little." Henry James, Daisy Miller, 1879. Alpenstock is used 6 times in this book.
"It [the smoke] came from the pipe of a young man who had an alpenstock and who looked as if he had climbed to see the sun rise." Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Lost Prince, 1914, p. 238.
"All [the tourist children] carried toy hatchets with a spike on one end built to resemble the pictures of alpenstocks." Stewart Edward White, The Mountains, 1904, p. 200.
"Roofs slope off into the bluffs, houses are built on green ledges of earth, and back yards shoot skyward, so that the vineyards grow at an angle of forty-five degrees, and he who goes to look at his garden must needs take an alpenstock in his hands." Elia Wilkinson Peattie, After the Storm: A Story of the Prairie, 1897, p. 403.
"And as a kind of horrid climax to the purge, a Soviet agent befriended Trotsky in Mexico City, then hacked him to death in 1940 with a steel-bladed alpenstock." Otto Friedrich, "World: Headed for the Dustheap", Time, Feb. 19, 1990, p. 36.
"This rich tradition of mountain guiding and exploration comes to life through archival photos and a period re-creation complete with hemp ropes, alpenstocks, and wool knickers." "Anyplace Wild: Companion Guide to the Public Television Series (Special Supplement to Backpacker Magazine)", Backpacker, Jun. 1, 1998, p. S1.

alphorn, alpenhorn n.

from Alphorn "Alpine horn": a curved, wooden, powerful-sounding horn used by Swiss mountaineers for signaling.

"Before that, Hans Rudolph Dutschler, an amateur alpenhorn player, covered the debts from his surveying business." Margot Hornblower, "Music", Time International, May 28, 1990, p. 52.
"Another touch of town authenticity resounds from the alpenhorn of Bob Johnson, owner of the Enzian Motor Inn. Wearing traditional Bavarian dress, Johnson plays his 12-foot-long alpenhorn for about 10 minutes each morning from the balcony railing of the Enzian." "Leavenworth: Alpine Authenticity", German Life, May 31, 1997.
"We've even had an alpenhorn player come in and play." Hartley Wynberg, "Glenn Gould Studio: Homage to a Master", Professional Sound, Oct. 1, 1999.
"The Pastoral Symphony asks for a solo 'corno pastoriccio', a valveless instrument that some think was an 'alpenhorn'." Carl Bauman, "Mozart, L.: Symphonies", American Record Guide, May 1, 1998.
"Lodging: Alpenhorn Bed and Breakfast. Most rooms have spa tubs and gas fireplaces. From $149. 601 Knight Ave.; 866-5700, (888) 829-6600, or www.alpenhorn.com." "The West's Best Lakes", Sunset, Aug. 2001.
Alphorn Favorites, Various Artists, music CD, 1997.
Alphorn Concertos, Leopold Mozart et al., music CD, 1997.
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angst, Angst n.

from Angst "strong fear": anxiety, anguish, distress, worry, alarm, fright, gloom, depression [< German Angst < Middle High German angest < Old High German angust. Angst has the same Indo-European root as English anxiety, anxious, anguish and anger, and Latin anxietas, anxius, angustus "narrow, tight" < angere "to press tightly; strangle; distress, anguish, make anxious". Merriam-Webster says, "Danish & German; Danish, from German". Wikipedia says, "Angst is a Dutch and German word for fear or anxiety", and also mentions the Danish word angst. All of my other sources only mention the German origin.]

"'It'll come again,' many a wise birder would nod knowingly in my direction on seeing my angst at missing some rarity or other." James Hanlon, UK500: Birding in the Fast Lane, 2006, p. 23.
"In a jewelry shop a black-haired woman wore a sweat-shirt that offered, at least for her, a resolution for cultural Angst. It said, 'Don't Worry, Be Hopi.'" Chris Bolgiano, Mountain Lion: An Unnatural History of Pumas and People, 2001.
"He suffered perpetual auto angst. For weeks his Jaguar had been sputtering to an inappropriate halt at stoplights all over the Valley." Jerry Stahl, Permanent Midnight: A Memoir.
"'Every generation thinks they're uniquely unexceptional,' replied Yukio. 'It's this generational envy thing, happens every twenty-five years. At least be original in your existential angst. This is a long-distance call.'" Christopher John Farley, My Favorite War, 1996.
"'The tension, Mom! You know! The angst!!' 'You feel tension and angst??'" Cathy Guiswite, Cathy comic strip.
"The Angst over EMU", Jay Branegan, Time, Mar. 17, 1997, p. 22.
Woody Allen's Angst: Philosophical Commentaries on His Serious Films, Sander H. Lee, 1996.
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angstmeister n.

See angst, -meister.

ansatz n.

from Ansatz "statement, formulation; beginning, start": a technical term used by mathematicians and especially by theoretical physicists to describe a solution to a problem which is guessed (usually with some free parameters). This entry and definition suggested by Hilmar R. Tuneke.

"It is shown that a correct description of the stationary quantum transport in superlattices with field-induced localized eigenstates requires the determination of a time-dependent distribution function from a kinetic equation, which emerges beyond the Kadanoff-Baym Ansatz.", P. Kleinert & V.V. Bryksin, "Quantum Transport in Semiconductor Superlattices Beyond the Kadanoff-Baym Ansatz", International Journal of Modern Physics B, 2001, p. 4123.
"The Bethe-ansatz wave function" Minoru Takahashi, Thermodynamics of One-Dimensional Solvable Models.

Anschluss n.

from Anschluß "annexation": a union; political and economic union (of two countries); the annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany in 1938.

"And after the Anschluss, he [Kurt Waldheim] waited two whole weeks before joining the Nazi Student Union." Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, 1991, p. 264.
"Here is an example of exactly such a leap of faith, which legitimizes a startling educationistic Anschluss of a host of traditional and concretely identifiable academic studies: ...." Richard Mitchell, The Graves of Academe, 1981.
"And Hitler sent Bloch loving postcards afterwards with 'yours gratefully, Adolf,' and he became the protector of Dr. [Eduard] Bloch after the 1938 Anschluss." Ron Rosenbaum, Explaining Hitler: The Search for the Origins of His Evil, 1999.
"[Fritz Mandl] appears to have been willing to do business with anyone on any side of any war, and because of that, the Nazis confiscated his factory even before the Anschluss joined Austria to Germany, in 1938." Hans-Joachim Braun, "Advanced Weaponry of the Stars", Invention and Technology, Spring 1997, p. 13.
Austria Before and After the Anschluss, David Lehr, 2000.
The Anschluss Movement 1931-1938 and the Great Powers, Alfred Low, 1985.
Timor's Anschluss: Indonesian and Australian Policy in East Timor, 1974-1976, Sue Rabbitt Roff, 1992.
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Ausländer, Auslander, auslander n.

from Ausländer "outlander": citizen of a foreign country, foreigner, alien, outsider [< German Ausland "foreign country" < aus "out, away" + Land "land, country"]. This entry suggested by Wilton Woods.

"It ['fraki'] means a groundhog, an earthdweller, a dirt dweller, one who never goes into space, not of our tribe, not human, a goy, an auslander, a savage, beyond contempt." Robert A. Heinlein, Citizen of the Galaxy, 1982, p. 74.
"In Ketzin, 10 miles from Berlin, 44 Auslander barely escaped with their lives when the building they inhabited was razed by torch throwers." "German right-wingers spearhead scores of attacks against foreigners", Time, Sep. 14, 1992.
"Putting out the welcome mat represents a 180-degree policy turn for Germany, which has long denied being an immigrant nation, even though loopholes have let in 'guest workers' and political refugees. Those waves of Auslander have pushed the foreign-born population to 9%." Jack Ewing, "International Business: Immigration: HELP WANTED", Business Week, Sep. 17, 2001, p. 52.
"The Bill of Rights is like foreign aid--something we like to talk about, but are too stingy or too indifferent to give to auslanders." Nicholas von Hoffman, "Defending Freedom By Suspending Liberty", The New York Observer, Jan. 7, 2002.
"While the experience varies from employer to employer, veterans say a few lessons should be borne in mind by anyone thinking of working for an auslander. First, be sure your prospective employer knows what it's doing in coming to America." Wilton Woods, "Executive Life: Should You Work for a Foreigner?", Fortune, Aug. 1, 1988, p. 123.
"As much as he [Joseph A. Reaves] loves his native land, particularly that part of it that is Wrigley Field, he sadly concludes that he is yet an auslander. 'I don't know where home is,' he writes. 'I fear I will never know.'" Ron Fimrite, "Books: A Couple of Curveballs", Sports Illustrated, Sep. 22, 1997, p. R24.
Auslander: A Novel, Mary Curtner Powell, 2000.
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autobahn, Autobahn n. [pl. autobahns, autobahnen]

from Autobahn "auto way": (in Germany) superhighway, interstate highway, freeway, expressway, limited access highway [Am.], motorway [Br.] [< German Auto "auto", short for Automobil "automobile" + Bahn, "way, road, track, path"]. This entry suggested by Anne Koth. See also infobahn.

"The parallel set-up cannot quite compete with the petrol engine in its performance but, with a top speed of 210kph and 150 horsepower, it should be sufficient to satisfy all but the most impatient autobahn driver." The Book of Visions: An Encyclopaedia of Social Innovations, edited by Nicholas Albery.
"Germany, where some locals guard the entitlement to drive 200-plus km/h as though it were a natural right and visitors prize a freedom denied at home, remains the exception: there is only one limit on most of the superhighways, and that is the car's performance. But the days of warp drive on the autobahn may be numbered." Daniel Benjamin Berlin, "Living: Speed Kills -- Right?", Time, Apr. 27, 1992, p. 40.
"The Yankees go through a World Series like a Mercedes on the autobahn." Michael Knisley, "October Best", The Sporting News, Nov. 6, 2000.
"Late in the last century (the 1990s believe it or not), we spoke of the information highway as if we were riding on a high-speed autobahn feeling barely in control and having few exits." Philip R. Jr. Day, "Blind Ride on the Technology Highway" Matrix: The Magazine for Leaders in Education, Jun. 2000.
"Many people still believe that the autobahns in Germany were a National Socialist 'creation', but this is very wide of the mark." Uwe Oster, "The Autobahn myth", History Today, Nov. 1996.
American Autobahn: The Road to an Interstate Freeway with no Speed Limit, Mark Rask, 1999.
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automat, Automat n.

from Automat "vending machine": a restaurant in which patrons obtain food from small compartments with doors opened by inserting coins into slots [< German Automat "vending machine, self-operating machine", shortened from Automaton (n.sing.) < automata (n.pl.) < Greek autó-matos "self-moving"].

"The wall reminded Hall oddly of an automat." Michael Crichton, The Andromeda Strain, 1969, p. 140.
"That he was not succeeding soon became evident when he explained to Ron how to get a free bowl of tomato soup at an Automat." Russell Miller, Bare-faced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, p. 65.
"We must eat in the foreigners' cafeteria where the food ranges from very poor to good. The atmosphere is reminiscent of a cross between an automat and a warehouse." Karen Turner-Gottschang & Linda A. Reed, China Bound : A Guide to Academic Life and Work in the PRC.
"You go a little farther down the street and get it at the Automat or the Crystal Lunch." Christopher Morley, The Haunted Bookshop.
"We had heard about Automats but had never seen one, so we ate a large breakfast at one and then went on a walking tour of Rockefeller Center." W. Carl Ketcherside, Pilgrimage of Joy: An Autobiography of Carl Ketcherside.
"For me, the Smothers brothers are as dated as Chubby Checker, the Automat and a good 10-cent cigar." Rex Reed, "Travolta's Mission: Incomprehensible ... Hollywood on Ecstasy", The New York Observer, Jun. 11, 2001.
"'The toughest part is that I don't want to eat in the Automat for the rest of my life.'" Clement Greenberg, as quoted in: Raphael Rubinstein, "The Harold Letters 1928-1943: The Making of an American Intellectual", Art in America, Dec. 2000.
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