God bless the Germans for giving us words that should exist in English but don't.
How recently have you encountered a Backpfeifengesicht, which translates as 'a face that cries out for a fist in it'?
Saturday, October 15, 2005
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The longest official German word is Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz, as in The Rinderkennzeichnungs- und Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz (RkReÜAÜG) (Law on delegation of supervision duties for marking of cattle and labeling of beef). A law of the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern of 2000, dealing with the supervision of the labeling of beef. The name is an example of the virtually unlimited compounding of nouns that is possible in the Germanic languages.
There are so many, to figure out the cunning ways of the Germans check out this: "Unausgeschlafen"
English Translation: "The state of not having had a restful sleep"
One would think "tired" could do, but the logic (sound as bridges) is as follows:
You take the word "Schlafen" (Sleep) add the prefix "ge" Making "geschlafen" (slept).
Add to that another prefix "aus", (translation means one of the following: out, of, from, off, over and ex...) and you get the word "ausgeschlafen" meaning, "Well rested".
Then add another prefix (--so that's THREE prefix' they use for a word that seems redundant.) "Un" meaning "un, as in unofficial, unnecessary".
And there it is: how to compress an entire english phrase into one word.
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