S sauerbraten, sauer-braten, sourbraten n.
sauerbraten from Sauerbraten "sour roast": beef marinated in vinegar and seasonings before roasting
sauerkraut, sauer-kraut, kraut, sourkraut, sourkrout, sour-krout, saur kraut, sourcrout, sour croute n.
from Sauerkraut "sour cabbage": cut cabbage fermented in brine, often for several months, before cooking. See also kraut. See further examples under bratwurst and knackwurst.
  • "You're a three-decker sauerkraut and toadstool sandwich with arsenic sauce." click to hear excerpt of song including sauerkraut lyrics by Dr. Seuss, sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch", How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 1966.
  • "He [Captain Bligh] took up a glass of the reeking ship's water, rinsing his mouth preparatory to an attack on the sourcrout." Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall, Mutiny on the Bounty, 1932, p. 45.
  • "I was just getting up steam to pray as hard as ever I could; for days I'd been thinking of it, and I was nearly to the point where one more killdeer crying across the sky would have sent me headlong from the schoolhouse anywhere that my feet were on earth, and the air didn't smell of fried potatoes, kraut, sweat, and dogs, like it did whenever you sat beside Clarissa Polk." Gene Stratton Porter, Laddie: A True Blue Story, 1913, p. 271.
  • "'So I'd say then: "Run along, you old goose! You'll be suggesting sauerkraut and wieners next."'" Edna Ferber, Buttered Side Down, 1911.
  • "He burst out indignantly, 'Was I to let that sauerkraut-eating civilian wipe his boots on the uniform of the 7th Hussars?'" Joseph Conrad, A Set of Six, 1906.
  • "In some places long rows of tables were placed, surrounded by broad, good-natured faces, more fleshly than spiritual, and groaning (not the faces) under jugs, mugs, bottles, bowls, and any thing else that would hold the national beverage; while the interstices were filled with bread, rolls, petzkuchen (a pet cake in Frankfort), boobies' shanks (I spell it phonographically; there may be an error of a letter or two), brödchen mit umsständen, saur kraut, cold puddings, and the ubiquitous würst." W.W. Wright, Doré. By a stroller in Europe, 1857, p. 248.
  • "Sour Croute" at SheetMusicDB.net
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schadenfreude, Schadenfreude n.
"joy of harm": the malicious pleasure one feels at someone else's misfortune.
  • Lisa: Dad, do you know what schadenfreude is?
    Homer: No, I do not know what schadenfreude is. Please tell me, because I'm dying to know.
    Lisa: It's a German term for shameful joy, taking pleasure in the suffering of others.
    Homer: Oh, come on Lisa. I'm just glad to see him fall flat on his butt! He's usually all happy and comfortable, and surrounded by loved ones, and it makes me feel... What's the opposite of that shameful joy thing of yours?
    Lisa: Sour grapes.
    Homer: Boy, those Germans have a word for everything!
    "When Flanders Failed" episode of The Simpsons season 3, written by John Vitti, directed by Jim Reardon, 1991.
  • "Like Adolf Hitler, Springer is easily tickled by what the Germans call Schadenfreude, the feeling of joy at another's misfortune." Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow, 1995, p. 526.
  • "So when my friend John called a few minutes later from L.A. and mentioned that a mutual friend of ours, whose first book was out (for which he had been grossly overpaid, if you ask me), had gotten a not-very-good review in Newsweek recently, all of a sudden, talking on the cordless phone and nursing my baby in the moonlight, I had a wicked, dazzling bout of schadenfreude." Anne Lamott, Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year, 1994, p. 120.
  • "Schadenfreude was not peculiar to the Middle Ages, but it was a dark variety indeed, induced by plague and successive calamities, the found expressions in gruesome scenes of the tortures on the cross, with the soldiers shown spitting on the Redeemer of man." Barbara W. Tuchman, Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century, 1987, p. 312.
  • "Never underestimate the power of schadenfreude!" Marian Salzman, Ira Matathia & Ann O'Reilly, Buzz: Harness the Power of Influence and Create Demand, 2003, p. 79.
  • "Nothing raises the spirits like a little schadenfreude." Evan Morris, The Book Lover's Guide to the Internet, 1998, p. 260.
  • "Schadenfreude is the preeminent pastime among journalists." Jonah Goldberg, "Mr. Kurtz, He Alive & Well", National Review, May 5, 2000
  • More books and products related to schadenfreude
scheisse, scheiss, sheisse, sheiss, shice n., v.i.
from Scheiße "excrement": droppings [< German Scheiße "dung", perhaps by way of Yiddish, related to English shit and to shed]. See further example under schmier. See also shicer, shyster.
  • "'Scheisse!' the driver yelled. A pedestrian had suddenly darted in front of the Mercedes, and the driver jammed on the brakes to avoid hitting him." Sidney Sheldon, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, 2005, p. 339.
  • "The transport officer stared at the mess and said scheiss through clenched teeth." Alan Furst, Night Soldiers: A Novel, 2002, p. 309.
  • "I told you before, I'm bored by all that philosophy sheisse... I can't relate to--to esoteric discussions." Carl Shapiro, Slayer of the Sacred Cow: A Contemporary Freethought Novel, 1986, p. 86.
  • "Thirty-five thousand feet up a fountain pen sheisses into a shirt pocket a purplish black gush that can now never become one of the great elemental words – fire night wind shit." Galway Kinnell, Imperfect Thirst, 1996, p. 65.
  • "We had words. He gave me some sheiss." William Diehl, Hooligans, 1985, p. 75.
  • More books and products related to scheisse
scheister n.
See shyster.
schicer n.
See shicer.
schiller n.
"luster, splendor, iridescence": a bronzy iridescent luster (as of a mineral).
schillerize v.t.
give schiller to.
Austrian schilling in 1947 (aluminum) and 1998 (copper)schilling, S., Sch. n.
from Schilling "shilling": the standard monetary unit of Austria before the euro; a coin of this value; a former minor coin of Germany [< German Schilling < Middle High German schillinc < Old High German scilling; English shilling < Middle English schilling < Anglo-Saxon scylling; the basic sense of the Indo-European root may have been "that which is cut off from a piece of metal for use as money" or "a small shield"].
  • "The entrance charge was twenty schillings, two-thirds as much as the Kunstmuseum, but it was hardly two-thirds as good." Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, 1991, p. 258.
  • "Saggy midsection, that loses the thread in too much uninteresting talk, takes some of the shine off the picture but this could still pull in a few schillings in select European markets." Derek Elley, "Hold-Up", Variety, Sep. 4, 2000.
  • "ERWIN SCHRODINGER (1887-1961) CURRENCY: Austrian, 1,000 schillings ($57 when last issued, in 1983)", Edward F. Redish, "Cold, Hard Proof that Science Has Cultural Currency", Discover, Nov. 1999.
to schlepp, to schlep v.i., v.t.
related to schleppen "tow": drag, lug, tote; move slowly or tediously [Yiddish shlepn < Middle High German sleppen < Middle Low German slepen]. (A laptop computer in German is humorously called a Schlepptop.)
  • 'schlepp' in _Dirty Dancing_"And show the goddam daughters a good time—all the daughters, even the dogs. Schlepp 'em out to the terrace. Show 'em the stars. Romance 'em any way you want." Dirty Dancing, starring Patrick Swayze & Jennifer Grey, 1987.
  • "My mom schlepped her watermelon breasts to the doctor at once." Fran Drescher, Enter Whining, 1996, p. 40. This book mentions to schlepp seven times.
  • "'You talk about schlepping peppers with a girl named Debra, I think, or perhaps you are escaping from leopards across the sea.'" Garrison Keillor, "Buddy the Leper", The Book of Guys, 1993.
schlieren n.pl. (sing. schliere)
from Schlieren "streaks": small streaks or masses in igneous rocks.
schlockmeister n.
See -meister.
schmaltz, schmalz n.
related to Schmalz "rendered fat": sentimental or florid music or art; unctuous sentimentalism [Yiddish shmalts < German Schmalz < Middle High German smalz].
  • "On a radio dial full of headbanger music and honkytonk and religious schmaltz and the steady whanging of commercials, public radio brings you worthwhile and even beautiful things." Garrison Keillor, Wobegon Boy, 1997, p. 127.
  • "It's ['Angie'] quite a straight, schmaltzy pop tune, with the piano and string arrangement so prominent, which is probably why it was so popular in Latin countries at the time." Mick Jagger, insert in Jump Back: The Best of the Rolling Stones, CD, 1997.
  • Primal Schmaltz, CD, by Jo Swan, 1998.
  • More books and products related to schmaltz
schmier, shmier, shmir, schmear, shmear, schmeer, shmeer n., v.t.
related to Schmiere, schmieren "ointment, salve, smear, grease, lubricant, greasy dirt, bribe, scrawl, scribble": a mass or group of related things ("the whole schmear"); a spread, often cream cheese on a bagel; to spread; a bribe; to bribe [< Yiddish shmir, shmeer "smear, smudge" < shmirn, shmiren, schmeeren "to smear, grease" < Middle High German smiren < Old High German smirwen, related to Pennsylvania German schmear "fat, grease"]. This entry suggested by Christian Macho. See also schmierkase.
  • "If the first or the last fiddle, the timpani or horn, the flute or oboe takes off with his own interpretation, the result will be not only anarchy, but such a schmier, such a mishmash that the audience will run away in horror!" Uta Hagen, Respect for Acting, 1973, p. 198. This is a meaning I have not found in dictionaries as it appears to mean a group of unrelated things rather than similar things.
  • "You eat usually eggs and toast mit raspberry shmier for breakfast, ze garbage fast food for lunch, maybe ze wiener made from pig balls or a slice of Scheisse you call pizza." David Ives, Time Flies and Other Short Plays, 2001, p. 45. This is a German character speaking in a play.
  • "'Was your son given free rein to access whatever web sites he liked, including, say, violent or pornographic ones?' 'Oh, we did the whole parental-controls schmear, but Kevin cracked it in a day.'" Lionel Shriver, We Need to Talk About Kevin: A Novel, 2003, p. 45.
  • "Try '99 bagels with schmear on the wall, 99 bagels with schmear' to kill even the strongest bagel cravings." Cameron Tuttle, The Bad Girl's Guide to the Open Road, 1999, p. 1.
  • "They are high-class, high-performance mostly Stratocaster-like guitars, available in spectacular custom colors including 'psychedelic vomit' and even 'haz-mat-sewage-fiasco shmear.'" Tony Bacon, Electric Guitars: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, 2000, p. 203.
  • "'How about an extra five over the meter?' 'You're on. Get in.' Ah, the power of the schmeer." Steve Karmen, Me and Bobby D.: A Memoir, 2003, p. 351.
  • "'That's fine,' said Boaz. 'Only wear a broad-brimmed hat and shmeer yourself with lotion. Otherwise you'll get red as a tomato, and they'll pick you by mistake.'" Erich Segal, Acts of Faith, 2003, p. 202.
Schmierchemie n.
from Schmierchemie "messy chemistry": a derisive term for biochemistry [< German Schmierchemie < schmieren (see schmier) + Chemie "chemistry"].
  • "No wonder 'real' chemists sneered at biochemistry, called it 'Schmierchemie', which they continued to do until much more recently than 1859!" (p. 22), "All animal chemistry used to be disparaged by the dictum, 'Tierchemie ist Schmierchemie'." (p. 261) Charles Tanford & Jacqueline Reynolds, Nature's Robots: A History of Proteins, 2001.
  • "'This heralds the end of organic chemistry: let's finish off the terpenes, and only the smears ('Schmieren') will be left!' [the derisive term Schmierchemie was used by organic chemists to denote physiological chemistry, or biochemistry as it is now known]." Walter Gratzer, Eurekas and Euphorias: The Oxford Book of Scientific Anecdotes, 2002, p. 134.
  • "No one knew how to purify, isolate, synthesize, or identify their huge and immensely complicated structures. German chemists condescendingly referred to organic chemistry as 'Schmierchemie,' or grease chemistry, and no large university in the United States devoted a department to large polymers." Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, Prometheans in the Lab, 2002, p. 120.
  • "It was grueling, unglamorous work. Tierchemie, runs an old German expression, ist nur Schmierchemie (Animal chemistry is just the chemistry of slimes and messes)." Barry Werth, Billion Dollar Molecule: The Quest for the Perfect Drug, 1995, p. 66.
schmierkase, Schmierkaese, shmierkase, smierkase, smiercase, smearkase, smearcase n.
related to Schmierkäse "soft cheese, cheese for spreading": chiefly North Midland U.S., any cheese suitable for spreading or eating with a spoon, especially cream cheese or (a sour) cottage cheese, therefore a synonym for schmier [< Pennsylvania German Schmierkees < German Schmierkäse < schmieren (see schmier) + Käse "cheese" < Middle High German kaese < Old High German kasi < Latin caseus]. See also schweizerkäse.
  • "This cheese [cottage cheese] goes by many other names: clabber, pot, Dutch, farmer's, Schmierkaese and bakers'." Irma S. Rombauer & Marion Rombauer Becker, Joy of Cooking, 1964, p. 513. In the 1997 edition of the same book, the word is spelled Schmierkase (p. 536).
  • "Pork and sauerkraut, chicken soup with saffron, schmierkase (similar to cottage cheese) with apple butter, and the vast array of pickles and pies that made up the famous 'Seven Sweets and Seven Sours' seem to have been exotic enough for the average American's taste." David J. Walbert, Garden Spot: Lancaster County, the Old Order Amish, and the Selling of Rural America, 2002, p. 87.
  • "They wandered like children on a school trip, listening to the strange Germanic inflections of the farm wives who sold them such exotica as cup cheese, shmierkase, sause, meringue kisses, and eggs boiled in beet juice." Leslie Chang, Beyond the Narrow Gate: The Journey of Four Chinese Women from the Middle Kingdom to the Middle America, 2000, p. 113.
  • "smierkase > cottage cheese", index entry, Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food, 1999, p. 891.
  • "The meal typically involves slices of bread, peanut butter, smearcase (cheese spread), pickled vegetables, snitz (dried apple) pie, and coffee." Donald B. Kraybill, The Riddle of Amish Culture, 2001, p. 352.
  • "She fed her little turkeys with boiled egg or smearcase, as my Grandmother Milhous always called clabber cheese (cottage)." Jessamyn West, Hide And Seek: A Continuing Journey, 1987, p. 261.
  • "Schmierkäse has become smearkase, and the sauer in sauer-kraut and sauer-braten is often spelled sour." H.L. Mencken, The American Language, 1936, p. 411. Mencken may have meant smearcase here since he spelled it that way at two other points in the book. Besides he is trying to emphasize the American spelling of foreign words.
schmuck, shmuck, schmo, schmoe, shmo n.
probably not related to Schmuck "jewelry, decoration, adornment": a jerk, oaf, fool. This word would normally not be included here because it probably does not come from German, but so many people have asked me about it that I am including an explanation. The mildly offensive English word schmuck is from the very offensive Yiddish word schmock, shmok "fool, penis." This much is certain.
Most dictionaries say the Yiddish word probably comes from Polish smok "snake, tail," although at least one says it probably comes from Slovenian, which, like Polish, is Slavic, not Germanic. The problem is that schmuck looks German, and there is even a German word Schmuck. One could even draw a connection between the Yiddish and German meanings ("penis" and "jewelry" respectively) with the expression "family jewels," but this is probably pure coincidence.
To complicate matters, at least one dictionary says the literal meaning of the Yiddish word is "a pendant" (which again could be a connection to jewelry) and that it is related to Old High German smocko, from which we get smock, a garment that hangs around one's neck.
It gets worse: One dictionary I found said the Yiddish word does indeed come from German Schmuck (without even a "probably"). Go figure.
Many dictionaries avoid the question altogether (or are extremely honest) and say "origin unknown" or leave it at "Yiddish" (if they include the entry at all).
schnapps, schnaps n.
from Schnaps "spirits, brandy, gin". See also kirschwasser.
  • "They danced and pounded and threw back beers and shots of peppermint schnapps and whatever else they could lay their hands on." T.C. Boyle, Drop City, 2004, p. 271.
  • "Larry had lives in a house that reeked of garbage; he was addicted to crème de banana and licorice schnapps." Garrison Keillor, Wobegon Boy, 1997, p. 17.
  • "Only the old war-horses in Finland sometimes reminisce about it over a late-night schnapps." Eloise Engle & Lauri Paananen, The Winter War: The Soviet Attack on Finland 1939-1940, 1973, p. viii.
  • "A pigtailed Tyrolese, seen at a celebration in Jochberg, carries a cask of Enzian schnapps, a liquor made from roots of the gentian, an Alpine wildflower." George W. Long, "Occupied Austria, Outpost of Democracy" National Geographic, Jun. 1951, p. 780.
  • "'You would let a good man die sooner than give him a drop of schnapps. That's what you Germans call economy.'" Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, 1900.
  • "'Rum is warm,' mumbled the old man, rocking to and fro in his chair, 'and schnapps is warm, and there's 'eat in soup, but it's a dish o' tea for me.'" Arthur Conan Doyle, Round the Red Lamp, 1894.
  • More books and products related to schnapps, schnaps
Schnauzer
schnauzer n.
from Schnauzer "moustache": a breed of rough-haired terrier. See further example under affenpinscher.
schnitzel n.
See Wiener schnitzel.
to schnorr v.i., v.t., to be on the schnorr v.i.
related to schnorren "(colloquial) to beg": (colloquial) to beg. See also schnorrer. This entry suggested by Brian.
schnorrer, shnorrer n.
related to Schnorrer "(colloquial) beggar": (colloquial) beggar, cadger, moocher, sponger, chiseler, scrounger, bum, parasite [Yiddish schnorrer, shnorer "beggar" < German Schnorrer "beggar" < schnorren "to beg" < schnurren "to whir, purr" (because of the musical instruments carried by the beggars) < Middle High German snurren (of echoic origin)].
  • Animal Crackers"Here comes Captain Spaulding, the African explorer—did someone call me, schnorrer?", Groucho Marx in Animal Crackers, 1930.
  • "He was speaking figuratively, the way a person might call even a rich fund-raiser a 'schnorrer' (Yiddish for beggar), despite the literal incongruity of such an appellation.", Philip Greenspun, Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, 1999.
  • "'That's Shnorrer, the beggar,' he says, indicating an aged man whose glazed eyes are always zeroing in on leftovers.", Ed Leibowitz, "Market Watch" Los Angeles Magazine, Oct. 2001.
schottische, schottish n.
from (der) schottische (Tanz) "(the) Scottish (dance)": a round dance similar to but slower than the polka; music for the schottische.
  • "He's thought about becoming a choreographer and forming his own company, but the name Bob Anderson, the Bob Anderson Company, kinda suggests folk dance, doesn't it, to you? I mean, people working in schottisches, basically." Garrison Keillor, "The News from Lake Wobegon", A Prairie Home Companion, Sept. 13, 2008.
  • "I attended private parties in sumptuous evening dress, simpered and aired my graces like a born beau, and polkaed and schottisched with a step peculiar to myself—and the kangaroo." Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1871.
  • "He taught certain uncouth lads, when they were of an age to enter society, the intricacies of contra dances, or the steps of the schottische and mazurka, and he was a marked figure in all social assemblies, though conspicuously absent from town-meetings and the purely masculine gatherings at the store or tavern or bridge." Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, 1903.
  • "During the whole evening the bands of the Préobrajensky and Paulowsky regiments had played without cessation polkas, mazurkas, schottisches, and waltzes from among the choicest of their repertoires." Jules Verne, Michael Strogoff: A Courier of the Czar, 1911.
  • "Flying Cloud Schottische", Come and Trip It - Instrumental Dance Music 1780s-1920s, composed by Gilles Jullien, Traditional, et al., 1994
  • "Rainbow Schottisch", "Jennie's own Schottische", By The Old Pine Tree, composed by Stephen Foster and Sidney Lanier, 1996
  • More CDs and products related to schottische
schpiel n., v.i., v.t.
See spiel.
schrank n.
related to Schrank "cabinet, closet, cupboard": a two-door clothes cabinet one side of which has drawers and shelves and the other side an open space for hanging clothes [< Pennsylvania German < German]. This entry suggested by Jan Neidhardt.
schtoom, schtum adj.
See shtum.
schussschuss n., v.i.
from Schuß "a shot": in skiing, a straight descent with no attempt to decrease speed; to execute a schuss.
  • "For communications junkies who dread the thought of losing touch while schussing down the Swiss Alps or hiking the Himalayas, one word: relax." William Reiser, Time, Dec. 2, 1996.
  • "Whether harmless dribbles or million-ton masses more than a mile wide, avalanches tend to schuss down the same runs year ofter year." Sharon Begley, "Taming the White Dragon", Newsweek, Mar. 8, 1999.
Schutzstaffel, S.S., SS., SS n.
"protective rank, defense corps": the personal bodyguard of Adolf Hitler; later, the Elite Guard of the Nazi militia, the Black Shirts. See also Waffen SS. See further examples under Gestapo and Kommandant.
schvitz n., v.i.
See shvitz.
schwaschwa n.
from Schwa: weak, neutral vowel sound found in most unstressed syllables in English, e.g. the a in alone, the e in happen, the i in easily, the o in gallop and the u in circus, represented by an upside-down e [< German Schwa < Hebrew sh'wa, shewa, the name of a diacritic mark used instead of a vowel].
schweizerkäse, Schweizerkäse n.
from Schweizer Käse "Swiss cheese". See also schmierkase.
  • "He had an engagement to take supper with several of his intimates at the Irving Place café, where he could throw aside the heaviest parts of his pose and give way to his appetite for beer and Schweizerkäse sandwiches." David Graham Phillips, Fortune Hunter, 1906.
seltzer bottleNew!seltzer click to hear pronunciation of seltzer, Seltzer, seltzer water n.
from Selterser (Wasser) "(water) of Selters": naturally fizzy mineral water, soda water [< German Selterser "from Selters" < (Nieder-) Selters, village near Wiesbaden with mineral springs < Saltarissa, Saltrissa, related to German Salz "salt"].
sheiss, sheisse n.
See scheisse.
sheister n.
See shyster.
shice n.
See scheisse.
shicer, schicer n.
probably from Scheißer "contemptible person, coward": Australian English, an unproductive mine or claim; slang, a swindler, welsher or cheat; an unscrupulous person; a worthless thing; a failure [German Scheißer literally "one who moves one's bowels" < scheißen "to move one's bowels" < Middle High German schizen < Old High German scizen, skizzan + -er "-er"]. See also shyster, scheisse.
  • "One such [term from goldfields slang] was SHICER (from British slang for someone considered worthless) and applied in Australia to a worthless mine. By the 1890s SHICER had come to mean a criminal type of person, surviving into the present as SHYSTER." Graham Seal, The Lingo: Listening to Australian English, 1999, p. 142.
  • "Millie heard the name as Shickster, but that couldn't be the case because this nattily dressed pillar of the community was beyond reproach. Glory heard Shice, or Shicer, but that couldn't have been correct either, because the lady in question religiously attended church each and every Friday and alternate Sundays." Theodore L. Kloski, Winter Quarter for Bees, 2005, p. 309.
shiseter n.
See shyster.
shlockmeister n.
See -meister.
shmier, shmir, shmear, shmeer n., v.t.
See schmier.
shmierkase n.
See schmierkase.
shnorrer n.
See schnorrer.
shtum, schtum, shtoom, schtoom, stumm adj.
related to stumm "silent": quiet, silent, secretive, unwilling to give information or details about something [Yiddish shtum, related to German stumm "silent, dumb (unable to speak)"]. This entry suggested by Sarah Hart.
  • "No opportunity to spread bug awareness should be missed, even when protocol demands you keep shtum", Karl Feilder, "Not so presidential but a class act anyway", Computer Weekly, Jun. 24, 1999.
shvitz bod, shvitz, schvitz n., v.i.
related to Schwitzbad "steam bath, sauna": a steam bath, to take a steam bath; to sweat, therefore shvitzing means "extremely hot" [Yiddish shvitz bod, related to German Schwitzbad < German schwitzen "to sweat" + Bad "bath"]. This entry suggested by Sarah Hart.
  • "A no-frills bath in the old style, a shvitz, a place where we sit in steam, in wet heat, in dry heat, in a room that sounds like something from the Arabian Nights: the Radiant Room." Mary Gordon, "Still Life", Harper's Magazine, Dec. 1998.
  • "So, Shvitz City it may be, but wipe your eyes and remember what you came looking for." Hal Rubenstein, "Why August in New York might just be heaven on earth", Interview, Aug. 1996.
  • "You may feel you've spent the plays [sic] brief running time on a sort of intellectual Stairmaster, panting to keep up with all the smart talk. And when you get off, you may wonder if all that schvitzing was worth it." Charles Isherwood, "Honour", Variety, Apr. 27, 1998.
  • "There--dazed, daunted and schvitzing--we immediately found ourselves amidst Hammocks, a magnanimous installation by the American artist Patrick Killoran, of approximately 20 modified but perfectly functional string beds attached to pillars, in the shade of the pier's lovely old industrial arcade." Lisa Liebmann, "A Summer Place", Art in America, Jun. 1999.
  • "'All I know is that in high school, you know, I was always kind of a tense person,' she said. 'A schvitzer, you might say.'" Ian Blecher, "Acid Reflux, Chic Gastric Ailment, Replaces the Ulcer--Ask Gandolfini", The New York Observer, Mar. 12, 2001.
  • The Shvitz (The Steambath), directed by Jonathan Berman.
shyster, sheister, scheister, shiseter, shyseter n.
probably from Scheißer "contemptible person, coward": slang or informal insult, an unscrupulous, dishonest, underhanded, unethical or questionable practitioner, especially a lawyer or politician, a pettifogger. [Some dictionaries say shyster comes from Scheißer without mentioning shicer; others, including Merriam-Webster, say it comes from Scheißer through shicer. One says it may come from shy, but that this is dubious. Many say, "origin unknown", and some say it may come from the name of a disreputable 19th-century New York lawyer called Scheuster, but none of them seem to know his first name. Many other origins have been conjectured.] See also shicer, scheisse.
  • "Next we come to His Excellency the Prime Minister, a renegade American from New Hampshire, all jaw, vanity, bombast, and ignorance, a lawyer of 'shyster' caliber, a fraud by nature, a humble worshiper of the scepter above him, a reptile never tired of sneering at the land of his birth or glorifying the ten-acre kingdom that has adopted him—salary, four thousand dollars a year, vast consequence, and no perquisites." Mark Twain, Roughing It, 1994, p. 362.
  • "They are the epitome of stability in a fast shifting culture full of shifty shiftless sheisters." Stephen Powers, The Art of Getting Over: Graffiti at the Millennium, 1999, p. 113.
  • "I left them with the parting shot that they should have their scheister call my lawyer, when convenient." Tony & Sandra Midea, A Fool's Guide To Landlording, 2004, p. 115.
sitz bath, sitz-bath n.
from Sitzbad "seat + bath; sitting bath": a bath one takes in a sitting position; a tub or basin used for such a bath.
  • James Bond - Sitz Bath"Sitz Bath & Heat Treatment", sign on a spa door in Thunderball, a James Bond movie starring Sean Connery, 1965.
  • "So he sat on the floor, and lit a pipe which I gave him, threw one of my red blankets over his shoulders, inverted my sitz-bath on his head, helmet fashion, and made himself picturesque and comfortable." Mark Twain, "A Ghost Story", Sketches New and Old, 1903.
  • "She added hot baths, sitz baths, shower baths, and plunges." Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876.
  • "The cool air above, and the continual bathing of our bodies in mountain water, alternate foot, sitz, douche, and plunge baths, made this walk exceedingly refreshing, and we had travelled only a mile or two, after leaving the torrent, before every thread of our clothes was as dry as usual, owing perhaps to a peculiar quality in the atmosphere." Henry David Thoreau, The Maine Woods, 1858.
  • "The medical staff X-rayed the patient's scrotum to locate the staples, and gave him tetanus antitoxin, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and a hexachlorophene Sitz [sic] bath prior to surgery the next morning." Wendy Northcutt, The Darwin Awards, 2000, p. 266. Sitz was capitalized in this example, perhaps due to a mistaken impression that the term was derived from the supposed inventor's name.
Sitzmarksitzmark n.
from Sitzmarke "seat + mark; mark made by sitting": a depression left in the snow by a skier falling backward.
smierkase, smiercase, smearkase, smearcase n.
See schmierkase.
sourbraten n.
See sauerbraten.
sourkraut, sourkrout, sour-krout n.
See sauerkraut.
spiegeleisen n.
from Spiegeleisen "mirror iron": a pig iron containing manganese and carbon.
spiel, schpiel n., v.i., v.t.
from Spiel; spielen "game, play; to play": voluble, mechanical, often extravagant talk, especially a sales pitch [< German spielen "to play" or Yiddish shpiln, both < Old High German spilon, related to Old English spilian "to revel"].
  • "It [Howard's speech] was equal parts disclosure, pep talk and closer's spiel, and he never looked her in the face the whole time he was delivering it, and he went on delivering it for the better part of the three days and two nights she was to spend in his company." T.C. Boyle, Drop City, 2004, p. 115.
  • A Walk in the Woods"Then, remembering her position, she gave me a little bit of the official line—a brief, practised, articulate spiel to the effect that one should never forget that the [Appalachian] trail is not insulated from the larger ills of society but that statistically it remains extremely safe compared with most places in America." Bill Bryson, A Walk in the Woods, 1997.
  • "I mean, I didn't want to sound difficult, but they did give Twiggy the same spiel." Fran Drescher, Cancer Schmancer, 2002, p. 105.
  • "Becker launched into his same spiel, a German tourist who was willing to pay top dollar for the red-haired girl who was out with his brother today." Dan Brown, Digital Fortress, 1998, p. 110.
  • "'Heaven's a joke, the kind of thing your Reverend Martin would spiel happily on about for hours, if you kept buying him shots and beers—it's no more real than Tom Billingsley's fishes and horses!'" Stephen King, Desperation, 1996.
  • "He sat there and doodled with his blue pencil on a tablet, listening to me spiel to him for three or four minutes before he got a word in." Malcolm X & Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1992.
  • The Horse Whisperer"Joe was giving him the whole spiel about static electricity and was doing it well." Nicholas Evans, The Horse Whisperer, 1995, p. 375.
  • More books and products related to spiel
spieler n.
from Spieler "player": one who does the above.
  • "'You're a fair spieler, child.'" Sinclair Lewis, Main Street, 1920.
Sprechgesang n.
from Sprechgesang "speaking song": a vocal style between singing and speaking, speech-song [German sprechen "to speak" + Gesang "song, singing"]. See also Sprechstimme. This entry suggested by Christiane Leißner.
  • "To signify Moses' inability to articulate God's inexpressible nature, Schoenberg wrote this role using Sprechgesang, a combination of song and speech that British bass John Tomlinson navigates with powerful finesse." Charles Isherwood, "Moses und Aron", Variety, Feb. 22, 1999.
Sprechstimme, sprechstimme n.
from Sprechstimme "speaking voice": a voice part employing Sprechgesang [German sprechen "to speak" + Stimme "voice"].
  • "In works such as the 1912 Pierrot lunaire, Arnold Schoenberg invented the device of sprechstimme, or speech-song; in The Cave Reich has perfected the principle and built an entire work upon it." Michael Walsh, "Music: Words Sliced And Diced", Time, May 31, 1993, p. 69.
  • "When the men vocalize-Ewan McGregor in more than mezza voce, and Jim Broadbent in spunky sprechstimme-I suspect that the two masculine names billed in the credits as 'vocal doubles' deserve the applause." John Simon, "Nic & J-Lo", National Review, Jun. 11, 2001.
spritz v.i., v.t., n.
from spritzen "to squirt, spray, sprinkle, spatter; inject".
  • "While packing it for the plane ride home, she insisted that the mirror was dirty and spritzed it with Windex." Fran Drescher, Enter Whining, 1996, p. 31.
  • "Soon I had met beetles that move through water by walking on the underside of the surface as though it were a glass ceiling and beetles that jet ski on top with the aid of compounds spritzed from their abdomens...." Douglas H. Chadwick, "Planet of the Beetles" National Geographic, Mar. 1998.
spritzer n.
from Spritzer "a splash, spatter, rain shower, spritzer": a beverage of usually white wine and soda water [perh. < Pennsylvania German < German Spritzer < spritzen "to spray"].
  • "The combination of a white-wine spritzer and a tilted bladder put me badly in need of a bathroom, but oddly enough, it was always occupied, and there seemed to be several voices coming from behind the locked door." Fran Drescher, Enter Whining, 1996, p. 48.
  • "Eh, no big loss, I can't be charming and keep my lipstick on with a rumaki in one hand and a spritzer in the other anyway." Fran Drescher, Enter Whining, 1996, p. 224.
SS, S.S., SS. n.
See Schutzstaffel.
stalag, Stalag n.
from Stalag short for Stammlager "main camp": a German camp for prisoners of war, especially in World War II.
stark adj.
related to stark "strong": stiff, rigid, standing out, bleak, desolate, barren, sheer, utter, downright, hard, harsh, severe, strong, powerful [Middle English starc < Anglo-Saxon stearc]. Stark doesn't come from Modern German but rather from Middle English and Anglo-Saxon and therefore has common roots with Modern German. The spelling and meaning are so similar that I have included it here. This entry suggested by Brigitte.
Stasi n.
the internal security force or secret police of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) [short for German Staatssicherheitspolizei or -dienst "State security police or service" < Staat "State" + Sicherheit "security, safety"].
  • "They're the perpetrators of the Stasi secret police—who like the Nazis before them feel no remorse." Stefan Thiel, "Old Stasi Never Die", Newsweek, Dec. 10, 2001, p. 39.
  • "This time the artists shot in the abandoned Berlin headquarters of the East German secret police, known as the Stasi, and the results are spectacular." Brooks Adams, "Jane and Louise Wilson at 303", Art in America, Oct. 1998.
  • "Interviewees run an intriguing gamut, from an East Berlin minister to a former Stasi official and Bavarian entrepreneur whose longtime dream to 'recycle the Wall' (literally, as road and building-foundation raw material) duly came true." Dennis Harvey, "After the Fall", Variety, May 8, 2000.
  • Stasi: The Untold Story of the East German Secret Police, by John O. Koehler.
stein, copyright 2002 Robbin D. Knapp stein n.
from Stein "stone": a large (earthenware) mug used especially for beer; the quantity of beer that a stein holds; (in mining) stonework used to secure the sides of a shaft. See further example under lederhosen. See also Ehrenbreitstein, Frankenstein.
  • "We camped together in a high Alpine pass, somewhere along the road between Salzburg and Klagenfurt, and in the evening walked into the nearest village, where we found awaiting us a perfect inn, full of black panelled wood and a log fire with a sleeping dog before it and ruddy-faced yeoman customers swinging steins of beer." Bill Bryson, Neither Here Nor There: Travels in Europe, 1991, p. 250.
  • "When I returned for breakfast, local families were already eating big platters of goulash, Wiener Schnitzels, and Würstel (page 766), and drinking tall steins of beer." George W. Long, "Occupied Austria, Outpost of Democracy" National Geographic, Jun. 1951, p. 771.
  • "They went to the balcony of a big, noisy restaurant and had a shore dinner, with tall steins of beer." Willa Sibert Cather, Youth and the Bright Medusa, 1920.
  • "Steins of lager beer were ventured upon." Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Shuttle, 1907.
steinbock: photo taken by Ferkelparade and released under the GNU Free Documentation Licensesteinbock, steinboc, steinbok, steinbuck, stonebock, stonebuck n.
from Steinbock "stone buck": a type of wild goat in Europe, the European, Capra, Stone or Alpine Ibex (Capra ibex); a type of antelope in Africa, the Steenbok (Raphicerus campestris) [< German Stein "stone" + Bock "male deer, goat or sheep", some of the spellings above no doubt influenced by the Dutch steenbok]. See also Ehrenbreitstein, Frankenstein, stein.
  • "In the Alps the Steinbock or stone ibex and chamois are common, scrambling with ease over precipitous rocky hillsides, while marmots emerging from holes in the ground make a screeching sound to warn their mates at the first signs of danger." Michael Hambrey & Jürg Alean, Glaciers, 2004, p. 221.
  • "You may also see deer, chamois (Gemse), and an occasional Steinbock (bouquetin), a mammal that is larger than a deer." Marcia & Philip Lieberman, Walking Switzerland, the Swiss Way: From Vacation Apartments, Hotels, Mountain Inns, and Huts, 1997, p. 51.
  • "It amounted to 2430 zebra, 967 wildebeeste, 846 Coke's hartebeeste, 932 Grant's gazelle, 546 Thomson's gazelle, 146 impala, 8 steinbock, 2 duiker, 46 eland, 19 giraffe, 1 rhinoceros, 86 ostrich, 1 cheetah, 5 hyaena and pack of 7 hunting dogs." Rick Ridgeway, The Shadow of Kilimanjaro, 1999, p. 54.
SteppenwolfSteppenwolf n.
from Steppenwolf "steppe wolf": a US rock band founded by German American John Kay (born Joachim Fritz Krauledat), named for the book Steppenwolf by German author Hermann Hesse [< German Steppe "steppe" + Wolf "wolf"].
  • "Then they would either explode and separate forever, and there would be no more Steppenwolf, or else they would come to terms in the dawning light of humor." Hermann Hesse, translated by Basil Creighton, Steppenwolf: A Novel, 2002, p. 56.
  • "The Sunday morning kickoff featured Jay Leno as the grand marshal and Peter Fonda as the honorary grand marshal (this town ain't big enough for two marshals), while John Kay and Steppenwolf got up god-awful early Sunday morning to play 'Born to Be Wild' at Harley-Davidson of Glendale for the thousands who turned up to take part in the 50-mile 'motorcycle caravan' that chugged along L.A. freeways to Castaic Lake Recreation Center in Santa Clarita." Paul Garson, Born to Be Wild: A History of the American Biker and Bikes 1947-2002, 2003, p. 144.
  • Steppenwolf homepage
  • Steppenwolf at SheetMusicDB.net
strand n., v.i., v.t.
related to Strand "beach": shore, especially the ocean shore, that is, beach. Strand doesn't come from Modern German but rather from Middle English, Old English and Anglo-Saxon and therefore has common roots with Modern German. The spelling and meaning are so similar that I have included it here.
  • "A viewing of those gallant whales/That blew at every strand." Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851, p. 174.
  • "Far below us was the beach, from half a dozen to a dozen rods in width, with a long line of breakers rushing to the strand." Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, 1865.
  • "He gazed with eyes that dared not focus too long on the human jetsam and the wreckage flung up on the long narrow strand that was the nearest landfall." Anne McCaffrey, The Chronicles of Pern: First Fall, 1994.
streusel, Copyright 2005 Robbin D. Knapp - click to enlargestreusel n.
from Streusel "sweet crumbly topping": mainly US, a crumbly topping or filling for cakes, breads and muffins made of sugar, flour, butter, and often cinnamon and chopped nuts. The resulting cake is called a streusel, streusel cake, coffeecake or coffee cake. [< German Streusel "something strewn" < Middle High German ströusel < ströuwen "to strew, sprinkle" < Old High German strowwen, strewen].
strudel n.
from Strudel "whirlpool": a kind of pastry. See further example under bratwurst.
stumm adj.
See shtum.
Sturm und Drang, Sturm und Drang, sturm and drang n.
from Sturm und Drang "storm and stress": actually a movement in 18th-century German literature but often used today simply to mean "turmoil".

Please do not plagiarize. If you would like to use this information in a print or electronic publication, please ask me for permission first and cite this page as:
Knapp, Robbin D. 2009. "GermanEnglishWords.com: S". In Robb: GermanEnglishWords.com. Jan. 5, 2009.

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