Rucksack (sometimes also known as a backpack) is a German borrowing that combines “ Rücken” (back) and “ Sack” (bag).
Here’s another one that becomes obvious when you think about it. The word was created by adding the diminutive suffix “- li” to the Old High German word “ muos”, which means a “meal, mush-like food”. Muesli - everyone’s favourite high-fibre breakfast dish - is a 1926 invention credited to the Swiss physician and nutritional pioneer, Maximilian Bircher-Benner. Technically, this is a Swiss German borrowing, but that’s good enough for us. HinterlandĪ wonderfully dreamy word that in English conjures up an image of the back of beyond - an ill-understood area, far away from civilisation - hinterland actually comes from the German words “ hinter” (behind) and “ Land”, which when put together mean something like “back country”. First used in the 1940s as a piece of technical jargon among radio and television engineers, a glitch is a short-lived fault and supposedly comes from the German word “ glitschen” (to slip) and the Yiddish word “ gletshn” (to slide or skid). Okay, there might be a bit of a glitch in the etymology of this one - but you can’t look at the word glitch (think of the word “kitsch”) and not smell something distinctly German about it. As the technique spread across Europe and the rest of the world in the 1850s, the word “ Lager” was absorbed into English, used to describe any beer made using this new process. Both the beverage and the word have their origins in Bavaria in the 19th century, when beermakers began experimenting with a different technique.īy brewing their beer at a cooler temperature, using a different strain of yeast, and then leaving it to ferment, mellow and clear in cold storage - a process known as “lagering” ( lagern) - brewers in Germany were able to create a new, lighter type of alcoholic beverage. The word “lager” is a shortening of the German word “ Lagerbier”, derived from the word for a storehouse: “ Lager”.
Let’s start - in proper German style - with a beer.
And these are just the ones that come with a bit of a story - there are hundreds, if not thousands, more! 1. Of course, etymology isn’t an exact science, since all languages are constantly in a state of flux - lending and borrowing left, right and centre - but we can be pretty confident that the following eight English words originally came from the German language. You don’t have to look far in the English language to find a word that we’ve clearly pinched from the Germans: doppelganger, kindergarten and angst have all made their way into common usage - but what about the sneaky German borrowings that are hiding in plain sight?
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