The title contains merkwürdig, one of Goethe's words. Does it mean "worth remembering," or is it one of Goethe's "odd" words?
Indeed. the meaning of merkwürdig has changed over the last
two centuries. Around 1800, it meant something worth remembering, while nowadays, the word is best translated into odd or strange.
In this sense, it is merkwürdig that Martin Müller did not mention in his book a project that started in 1946 when scholars of three Academies of Science and Humanities at Berlin-Brandenburg, Göttingen, and Heidelberg began working on a dictionary project to record Goethe's language - and thus the world view of the world's most famous German poet.
Today's Badische Zeitung article informed us that The Goethe dictionary is a mammoth project slowly approaching the finish line. It is to be completed by 2025. It was recently presented in Berlin.
In this sense, it is merkwürdig that Martin Müller did not mention in his book a project that started in 1946 when scholars of three Academies of Science and Humanities at Berlin-Brandenburg, Göttingen, and Heidelberg began working on a dictionary project to record Goethe's language - and thus the world view of the world's most famous German poet.
Today's Badische Zeitung article informed us that The Goethe dictionary is a mammoth project slowly approaching the finish line. It is to be completed by 2025. It was recently presented in Berlin.
The project was started in 1946 on the initiative of Goethe scholar Wolfgang Schadewaldt and was conceived as an intellectual and moral renewal of Germany after Nazi barbarism.
Scholars have identified around 93,000 different words in Goethe's work. An archive of about 3.5 million textual records - initially painstakingly scattered on index cards - has been created. They come from his poems, dramas, novels, countless letters, diaries, scientific papers, and official writings. After all, the Frankfurt-born poet and later Weimar minister also dealt with anatomy, botany, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, optics, administrative science, and civil law.
When scholars began their work in Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Heidelberg, they soon faced the effects of Germany's division. Still, despite the Wall and the Cold War, by the mid-1960s, the collection of materials was essentially complete.
Scholars have identified around 93,000 different words in Goethe's work. An archive of about 3.5 million textual records - initially painstakingly scattered on index cards - has been created. They come from his poems, dramas, novels, countless letters, diaries, scientific papers, and official writings. After all, the Frankfurt-born poet and later Weimar minister also dealt with anatomy, botany, chemistry, geology, mineralogy, optics, administrative science, and civil law.
When scholars began their work in Berlin, Hamburg, Leipzig, and Heidelberg, they soon faced the effects of Germany's division. Still, despite the Wall and the Cold War, by the mid-1960s, the collection of materials was essentially complete.
Goethe is considered the most powerful German in terms of words, even ahead of Martin Luther. Still, instead, the classical trio in Weimar Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, and Christoph Martin Wieland laid the foundations for the modern German language. They created many new German words by poetic inventiveness or adoption from foreign works like Wieland's translation of Shakespeare.
Here are some examples of Goethe's nowadays mostly forgotten words:
ärschlings > with the butt first
äugeln > throwing eyes on someone; replaced by flirten
Einhelfer > Souffleur > prompter
Geströhde > Strohhaufen > a heap of straw
Handquehle > Handtuch > hand towel
Kahlmäuserei > Pedanterie > pedantry
Krabskrälligkeit > Schwangerschaft > pregnancy
Piphahn > penis
Rüsterbaum > Ulme > elm tree
Schlittenrecht > The right of a sled driver to kiss his female passenger at the end of the ride
strozzlich > sich spreizend > spreading, splaying
Unstimmung > Missstimmung > rift, dysphoria
Vorlust > Vorfreude > joyful anticipation
Windbruch > trees cut down by storm
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