A Way with Words A Way with Words

Discussion Forum

Please consider registering
guest

Log In Register

Login form protected by Login LockDown.


Register | Lost password?
Search
Advanced Search
Advanced Search:

— Forum Scope —



— Match —



— Forum Options —




Wildcard usage:
*  matches any number of characters    %  matches exactly one character

Minimum search word length is 4 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters

RSS
Schlimmbesserung
2010/12/14
8:29pm
Kulturvultur
Posts: 15
Joined:
2009/05/24
Offline
1
0

I heard a recent episode where a caller was looking for a word to describe a situation where you try to fix something but end up making it worse. There is a German word "schlimmbesserung" which fits the bill, although it is a bit of a mouthful. Any thoughts?

2010/12/15
5:23am
Bob Bridges
USA
Posts: 601
Joined:
2010/08/14
Offline
2
0

My German is almost non-existent. The "besser" part corresponds to the English "better", and I believe the "-ung" ending makes the word what we would call a gerund. So I can think of trying to fix something but making it worse as "schlimm-bettering"

So what's "schlimm"?

Babel Fish says schlimmbesserung is "bad improvement", and schlimm is "badly". I didn't think it would be that simple. "Bad-bettering", yeah, I can remember that.

2010/12/15
7:46am
CheddarMelt
Pittsburgh
Posts: 70
Joined:
2010/11/23
Offline
3
0

As much fun as some German words (such as schadenfreude or fliedermaus) are, I am really diggin' Martha's neologism. Most people I know remember the Cola Wars and New Coke, so the word would convey so much more meaning. A "bad fix" may only suggest that a problem has not been corrected, but New Coke equals "What the blank were you people thinking? Change it back! Quick!"

2012/10/25
3:25pm
Grant Barrett
San Diego, California
Posts: 1392
Joined:
2007/08/02
Offline
4
0

By the way, here's the term from an 1897 book theology.

The reader will please remember that an "emendated" text is not really an "unfaulted," "bettered," "corrected," and therefore "truly correct" text, but a text or a reading which somebody has in innocent ignorance changed, supposedly for the better, but actually for the worse. A colloquial German word, " Ver-schlimmbesserung" "badbettering," would be the appropriate term for such "emendation."

All RSS