Ivan ReeseJun 19, 2025
Hey Germans, please come up with a word that means "the fear of typing `return` vs `shift-return` because you don't know which inserts newline and which sends the message"
Show threadPeterJun 19, 2025

@spiralganglion

You could go with something like Eingabentastenumschalteverwechslungsangst, if you enjoy needlessly long compound words. Doesn't mention newline or messages, though. Sendetastenverunsicherung is a bit looser and closer to something someone would actually use.

Show threadEric SchultzJun 21, 2025
@peter_sc @spiralganglion your language is bonkers 😂
Show threadrefraction Jun 22, 2025
@wwahammy @peter_sc @spiralganglion it's really not. it's just a convention in English to put spaces in terms made up of several words and not have long compounds. but note that English does still have occasional compound words. German just does it more and longer. pretty much anything where you would use a hyphen too connect a term you'd likely just close the gap in German, but that's literally just a spelling convention that could easily change.
Show threadJan BoddezJun 22, 2025

@elexia @wwahammy @peter_sc @spiralganglion I’d even go as far as saying that in most Germanic languages compound nouns are written as a single word, and that English is the odd one out.

Although it’s disturbingly common to see random spaces inserted also in Dutch compound nouns (which I find tends to make them *more difficult* to read), a symptom of a broader phenomenon sometimes dubbed “the English disease.”

Show threadrefraction 
@janboddez @wwahammy @peter_sc @spiralganglion influence from other languages is common and who knows, maybe Dutch will become like English in that regard under its influence given enough time. nothing fundamentally wrong with either way of doing it.
Jun 22, 2025 at 7:24amWeb