tbits101Dec 15, 2022
Jens Clasen

The German word "verbessern" means "to make better".

The word "verschlimmern" means "to worsen".

The word "verschlimmbessern" means "to make worse by trying to make better".

Anyone ever trying to fix something and fucking it up badly will feel this one.

Enjoy our language!

#TheGermanWord

Nov 17, 2022 at 11:18amWeb
Show threadKing JamesNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen darf man “verscheißern” sagen?
Show thread9Lukas5 🚂 🐧Nov 17, 2022

@capybara @jensclasen Not sure about your German skills, so sorry if I got you wrong^^

Sure you can say that, but the translation for 'verscheißern' would be 'to fool someone' 😄

Show threadKing JamesNov 17, 2022

@jensclasen @9Lukas5 my German is … intermediate. Confident but with errors.

I was wondering if verscheißern might be “transform into shit” but it seems more akin to “you’re shitting me” or “perform a confidence trick on <someone>”?

Show thread9Lukas5 🚂 🐧Nov 17, 2022
@capybara @jensclasen Yes exactly. "You're shitting me" fits it perfectly 😄
Show threadIlli A. HegerNov 17, 2022

@capybara
@jensclasen @9Lukas5

verscheissern would be make fun of somebody, smear them with shit I guess
verkacken means to fail something transform it to Kackhaufen, a pile of shit

Show thread9Lukas5 🚂 🐧Nov 17, 2022

@illiannaheger well your given examples would be very literate 🙊, which it is not meant like 💁🏼

So it would be used like this:

🇩🇪"Willst du mich verscheißern?!"
🇺🇸"Are you shitting me?!"

Show threadKing JamesNov 17, 2022

@9Lukas5 @illiannaheger

Und wenn ich "vermistern" sagte? Was bedeutet das?

(Ich schlage vor, es muss euch alle ganz klar sein, das Deutsch nicht meine Muttersprache ist. 0

Show thread9Lukas5 🚂 🐧Nov 17, 2022
@capybara Das wäre wohl ein ganz neues Wort 🤔
Zumindest wüsste ich nicht, dass ich das schon je irgendwo gehört hätte 🤓
Show threadKing JamesNov 17, 2022
@9Lukas5 ich fühle mich sehr stoltz. Ich bin Verfluchtworterfinder.
Show threadCalamity Joan 😷Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen Amazing. Danke schön!
Show threadAKMANov 17, 2022
@jensclasen And 'ver-' isn't a separable prefix, so you'll always see it conveniently right at the front of the word you're reading…
Show threadfuzzbizzNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen Not the same but I am reminded of "pulling a Homer" - to succeed despite idiocy.
Show threadElise CuttsNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen I miss the "ver" prefix when I speak English now, and I'm an English native speaker lol. There's just no equivalent.
Show threadDeanna KreiselNov 17, 2022
@elisecutts @jensclasen I feel that way about "dont" in French
Show thread@misterjayem on BlueSkyNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen or as my father would say, "don't bust it all to hell, so you don't have nothing."
Show threadDadbandsingerNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen I love this word and I use it frequently when I'm tempted to 'polish' a presentation or some other piece of work that I secretly know is absolutely fine. 😁
Show threadArne BleijsNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen I want that in Dutch too! Something like 'verergbeteren' or so.
Show threadHelenNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen I love the way that German makes a word by just squidging words together. Trying to relearn it after a very long break. Es regnet jetzt sehr stark.
Show threadSibrosanNov 17, 2022

@jensclasen

I will tell you a Dutch word with a similar meaning, of which, however, I am not sure if anyone uses it, outside of the service department of the company I work for.

Germans should be able to understand what it means:

kapotrepareren.

Show threadRobertNov 18, 2022
@sibrosan @jensclasen
Leuk - "kaputtreparieren" is the German one
Show threadJorge ☕️Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen this is why German is a fascinating language
Show thread0lixNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen ❤️
Show threadKris Warner 🦀 🐧Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen I have a garage door I just verschlimmbessern’d.
Show threadvarx/socialNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen Wiktionary suggests "disimprove" as an English word that may be losing its older meaning and taking on this meaning instead. :-)
Show threadRobert HoneybourneNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen It’s very good. German is so ‘German’ the way it all clicks together perfectly. (How is my push for the use of Benzinhof as petrol station progressing by the way? 🤣)
Show threadDouglas @revdjenk JenkinsNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen
Our high school German teacher advised us to never accept a Gift from a German!
Show threadColin MacleodNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen - been there, done that 🙄
Show threadHenning JansenNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen ich hätte „verbessern“ wahrscheinlich mit „improve“ übersetzt, aber das ist sehr schön erklärt 😁👍
Show threadLen BeltaNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen
Verschlimmbessern is my superpower. 🦸‍♂️
Show threadMFierstNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen
Every developer I know has been there, done that 😁
Show threadAngellaNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen love it!
Show threadBen KwongNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen What about verbesschlimmern 🧐
Show threadMichal Bryxí 🌱Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen I did not know that it's possible to describe my current role in one word ... 😅
Show threadJasper 🍉Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen verschlimmbesser your language today!
Show threadarminNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen English language got "disimprove" for that.
Show threadHugh FergusonNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen Just like Homer Simpson said "Wow! Those Germans have a word for everything" (from the episode where North America was introduced to the word Schadenfreude)
Show threadHugh FergusonNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen So would verbessschlimmern meant to inadvertently make things better when you were trying to f*ck sh*t up 😆​
Show threadGordonNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen It's a great word but it's still not Kummerspeck 😩🥓
Show threadMatt Reider Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen @yuvipanda yes, this is a favorite of mine. My Austrian friends translate it as "improve things worse," which, in engineering, happens all the time.
Show threadTimothée Muller ⏚Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen German is intuitive because you can build a new word by combining several of them. It's a kind of "lego language" I always say!
And then I remember about "Dativ", "Akkusativ" and that there are 3 genders... German is actually hard to grasp for me.
Show threadRick TuroczyNov 17, 2022
I think I need this on my gravestone
Show threadDietmar HauserNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen There is similar word in English software engineering jargon: refucktoring
Show threadsbiNov 17, 2022

@jensclasen There's also the infamous "zerreparieren", which is created by prefixing "reparieren" ("to repair ") with "zer-", which is a prefix making verbs refer to something destructive.

/cc @veronica @PeterSommerlad

Show threadEvan Nov 17, 2022
@jensclasen re: verschlimmbessern — I don’t know if that’s true but it’s so truthy I don’t care. #GermanIsAnAwesomeLanguage #BestGermanWords #verschlimmbessern
Show threadJudithNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen ‘Worsening by improvement’! Love it!
Show threadPenguinNov 17, 2022
@jensclasen Lived in Switzerland 5 years, learned German like a baby, constant repetition & using it for daily tasks. During Cold War use of German dissipated by the onslaught of English & a huge US Army presence, didn’t pursue formal learning of the language as didn’t expect to use it 🙁
Show threadBigbreakfastNov 17, 2022

@jensclasen Genius! Germans have a word for significant proportion of my colleagues ;)

In English it would be a paragraph.

Show threadNPhNov 18, 2022

@jensclasen The German word Radikalenerlass, which just turned 50, should be spelled Radikalenentlass more precisely.

Enjoy our language.

Show threadHelNov 18, 2022
@jensclasen nice one but as a German I can confirm that no one actually really uses that word
Show threadPhysicmanNov 18, 2022

@jensclasen I love how easy it is to create new words in German.

We should try in french too.

I'd like to suggest "améliorempirer" from "améliorer" (make better) and "empirer" (make worse).
😃

#néologismes

Show threadRobertNov 18, 2022
@jensclasen
"Verschlimmbessern" is one of those lovely German words that holds a whole Universe of meaning - I always thought it was untranslatable, but "improvemusking" might come close!
Show threadfafaNov 18, 2022
@jensclasen me and my love-sexmate trying to improveworsen our mutual empathicallymisundertanding relationship.
Show threadClio_RougeNov 18, 2022
@jensclasen ist es Schadenfreude ? 😅
Show threadChtixof 🦊🚲🌻🐝Nov 19, 2022
@jensclasen
« If it ain't broke, don't fix it »
And in French :
- Faire pire que mieux
and
- Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien
Show threaddshlapakNov 20, 2022
@jensclasen German honestly has “a word for it.”
Show threadPenny 🖖✍️👻Nov 20, 2022
@jensclasen I do enjoy your language, in fact Mastodon has helped me remember learning German 40 years ago. I will keep at it.
Show threadarnimfNov 30, 2022
@jensclasen all part of the the concept of ‘Sollbruchstelle’, my favourite German word as it’s the centre of the german engineering universe (and mentality). “Point-of-letting-it-break” where a bit of engineering is allowed to fail before something worse happens.
Show threadSTEAM_Annie 🇬🇧Nov 30, 2022
@jensclasen The word #verschlimmbessern sounds perfect for the government of the UK in 2022!
Show threadPaitNov 30, 2022
@jensclasen Now, doing something so badly that you actually improve things os a concept that cannot exist outside Brazil. Right?
Show threadMadeleineNov 30, 2022
@jensclasen it's what makes German nice.