Thursday 3 September 2020

German words...

There’s a German word for everything. Lebenswelt is “that province of reality which the wide-awake and normal adult simply takes for granted as common sense”. Hamsterkauf, applicable to those who panic-buy everyday essentials during a widespread crisis, is inspired by hamsters stuffing their cheeks with as much food as possible. A German word, mitfreude, is the opposite of schadenfreude: sharing in - and being happy for - someone else’s success. It’s a little-known word (I hadn’t heard of it until today), which suggests that we don’t have much need for either the word… or the concept.

Licensed today: a VW van parked up in the Duddon Valley. Volkswagen, the 'people's car', was one of the führer's better ideas...


 

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