Updated on August 18, 2020, 5:28 pm
Which terms did the Duden take out when? A book does not ask for new words, but for the deleted ones. A joke journey through time with overflowing vegetables and vegetables. All right?
Mindfulness exercise, dating platform and insect death are among the new entries in the new Dudenwhich was released on August 12th. Words such as Hackenporsche (joke word for shopping scooters) and Vorführdame (model) were deleted. Just in time for the appearance of the 28th edition of Dudens, the publisher has now published the new and expanded book “Was nicht mehr im Duden” from 2018. It explains when terms flew out of the Duden and is a journey to the highlights and abysses of the German language.
Many of the deleted words are still online
“Duden” always refers to the yellow Duden, the spelling dictionary that neither tries to map the entire vocabulary nor provides information on the origin and meaning of the word. It is volume one of the twelve-volume Duden series. In the online dictionary, many of the deleted words can still be found as “out of date”. However, words drop out of the Duden book when they get out of use, or other words quite clearly displace them – such as “rabies” or “dog fury”, which was deleted in 1991.
One of the “nicest” words that the (printed) yellow Duden once crossed out was the “What is no longer in the Duden” author Peter Graf “jabberish” (deleted in 1961 in the Federal Republic of Germany; in 1967 in the GDR), the one deleted in 1991 “fuchsschwänzeln” (speaking to someone by the mouth; flattering) as well as the 2009 removed “verbalpfieren” (denigrating / insulting).
The book combs through the Duden history in thematic chapters
The author combs the history of words in thematic chapters. Readers also learn that the “Urduden” from 1880 only had around 27,000 entries. In the latest edition of 2020, the number of keywords has increased to 148,000.
On the subject of “fashion and textiles”, for example, readers find out that in 1941 “Überwupper” disappeared as a half-joking German translation of sweater; the sweater Germanization “Schwitzer” but only in 1957 in the east and even in 1967 in the west.
“Agrumen” as a collective name for citrus fruits was deleted in 1980 in the west and five years later in the east. The word “zuemüse” for vegetable side dish was only introduced in 2000.
There used to be surprisingly compact words for “getting old” or “harvesting fruit” in the Duden: namely “elderly” (1961 in the west, deleted in the east in 1985) and “obsten” (gone in 1961 in the west, in 1967 in the east).
Nazi era gloomy in the Duden
The years of Nazi rule were also gloomy for the Duden. Both the 1934 edition and – to an even greater extent – that of 1941 contained a lot of Nazi vocabulary, as Graf explains. The Germanist Otto Basler, who headed the editorial team of the 11th and 12th editions and continued his career as a university professor after the Second World War, offered no resistance – “or as the linguist Wolfgang Werner Sauer put it in his 1989 essay” Der Duden im Third Reich “put it: He designed the new edition as early as 1933 in such a way that it was unnecessary to synchronize the dictionary.” The Duden institution adapted itself to National Socialism “with remarkable speed”.
Many words were then quickly deleted again in 1947, including of course “Hitler salute”, “ready for war”, “Verjudung”, “Strength through joy”, “foreign races” and “Untermensch”. According to projections by Wolfgang Werner Sauer, around five percent of all keywords were affected. The first post-war edition appeared in Leipzig in 1947; a licensee then sold them in the three western occupation zones and in the Federal Republic of Germany.
In the 1950s, the division into East and West Duden follows
From the 1950s onwards there was a division into East Duden and West Duden. “These parallel editions of Dudens therefore had the same number of editions: In West Germany (at the Mannheim publishing house) there were a total of six, in East Germany (at the previous Leipzig publishing house) there were five recorded vocabulary from each other “, it says in the book.
The “Einheitsduden”, the 20th edition from 1991, ended the period of parallel editions. At that time GDR terms such as “Kaderakte” (personal files) and “naming consecration” (ceremonial naming of a newborn as a substitute for Christian baptism) were deleted.
It is noticeable that the Federal Republic was lagging behind in some social developments. While in the East, for example, the “doctor’s wife” disappeared as early as 1967 – that is, the woman who is more or less allowed to carry the academic ordinations of the Lord as a grace – it was not until 1980 in the West.
And the word “traitor” (derogatory for: someone who betrays his own people, cheats), which seeped in in the 1930s and was influenced by fascism, disappeared as early as 1951 in the East Duden, but only in 1973 in the West Duden. It’s back today – but only because of his recent career in recent years. A few years ago the jury there in Darmstadt declared it “Unword of the Year 2016” – and in the Duden there is a list of the “Unword of the Year” in Germany that has been chosen since 1991. (mgb / dpa)
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