The literal meaning would be the panic deriving from a closed door, but in everyday language it describes the anxiety felt when being close to a deadline. The term was firstly coined by German Romantic author Jean Paul. Translated as the “pain of the world” or “world-weariness”, Weltschmerz is the feeling of deep insatisfaction and pain which derives from the realization that the physical world can’t fully comfort the desires of the mind. Who studied or is studying literature and in particular German Romanticism will surely have encountered this word whose roots reside in high German, meaning “illness of the painful whim”.

SehnsuchtĪmid different definitions, which vary from yearning, desire and/or craving, Sehnsucht is a feeling of longing for something unknown and indefinite. Each of these words not only will help you expand your vocabulary, but will deepen your knowledge of this new world. If it were to remain as it is, it should be shelved, with gentleness and reverence, amid the dead languages, because only the dead have enough time to learn it”.Īs follows we would like to propose 10 beautiful German words that have a very special meaning and that are unique in their own way to the German culture.

It is obvious that the German language needs to be remodelled and repaired. Even Mark Twain, the american writer known for his troubled relation with German, a language that he didn’t particularly love but found very stimulating, said: “on the basis of my philology studies I came to the conclusion that a person prone to languages will be able to learn English (excluding the grammar and pronunciation) in 30 hours, French in 30 days and German in 30 years. Learning German is a life exercise because it is an idiom that tests us on a daily basis.

German words in english lexicon