GEMUTLICH

[Dr. Goodword]

• gemutlich •

Pronunciation: gê-mut-lik • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Pleasant, amiable, friendly.

Notes: Today's Good Word was borrowed from German in the middle of the 19th century but its use has been so limited that some still spell it the German way, either gemütlich or gemuetlich. It is a good way to add a German flavor to your conversation should you have reason to do so. The noun for this word, gemütlichkeit, is almost always written with the 'umlaut' over the U, an indication that it isn't a fully assimilated English word.

In Play: Today's adjective applies to people who are simply pleasant all the time: "Molly Coddle is a rosy-cheeked, zaftig, gemutlich young woman to whom everyone is immediately attracted." (Why limit yourself to English?) However, it also describes places and things that bring pleasure: "The decor of Lacie Curtain's apartment was so gemutlich that I found myself immediately at home there."

Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from Middle High German gemüetlich (Modern German gemütlich), derived from gemüete "spirit, feelings". The root here, müet, came from Old High German muot "mind, spirit, joy", the same word that became mood in English. This word is probably related to the Latin word men(t)s "mind" that we find in mental, buttressed by our old friend, the Fickle N that comes and goes mysteriously across Indo-European languages. (Today we must be grateful to the ever gemütlich Carla Puky for finding today's Good Word for us.)

[skinem]

Dr. Goodword, my German teacher, Frau Wibke Groenen, would would have been very proud of you!

[Stargzer]

Word History: Today's Good Word was borrowed from Middle High German gemüetlich (Modern German gemütlich), derived from gemüete "spirit, feelings".

Could gemüete related to gamete? The AHD and Online Etymology Dictionary don't really say so, tracing gamete to "to marry."


Gemütlichkeit.

In my research I found two sites that spelled it "Gemiitlichkeit," substituting "ii" for the "ü." Oy vey!

The melody, for those who've never been in Das Festhaus at Busch Gardens Europe (née Busch Gardens: The Old Country) in Williamsburg, VA.

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit,
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit der Gemütlichkeit!
Ein, zwei, (drei), g’suffa!

Rough translation:

A toast, a toast to happiness,
A toast, a toast to happiness!
One, two three, down the hatch!

Stargzer's gotten very thirsty all of a sudden ...

[gailr]

I never expected to see zaftig as part of the WOTD copy.

[Stargzer]

I never expected to see zaftig as part of the WOTD copy.

Then you missed something back on the Ides of April in 2005.

That will be the 13[sup]th[/sup], by the way; the Ides was on the 15[sup]th[/sup] only in March, May, July, and October; it was the 13[sup]th[/sup] of every other month.

[sluggo]

Today's Good Word was borrowed from Middle High German gemüetlich (Modern German gemütlich)

I'm wondering why the e after the umlaut- seems redundant. Was this a feature of MHG or a typo?

[Stargzer]

Today's Good Word was borrowed from Middle High German gemüetlich (Modern German gemütlich)

I'm wondering why the e after the umlaut- seems redundant. Was this a feature of MHG or a typo?

My German is restricted to "Ein beer, bitte! Danke!" but I did some research out of curiosity, having noticed Systranet put in an extra 'e' in a translation.

A Wikipedia article states:

The full development of the Germanic umlaut was only completed in the course of the MHG period, and notation of umlauted vowels (Modern German ä, ö, ü) and their notation emerges in the period after 1300, e.g. uohse "armpit" vs. üehse (Wolkenstein 49.1.11). Note that the umlaut diacritic (the two dots) appear only in Early Modern German (around 1500). What in standard transliteration appears as üe in the manuscripts is usually written with a diacritic e, viz. the transliteration güete ("goodness") renders guͤte.

That last word uses a funky Unicode character that most fonts don't render. If you install the Charis SIL font and blow it up to size 24 that character displays as a small letter 'e' as a diacritic on top of the preceding 'u.' At size 10 the 'e' doesn't render very well. Something like this:

e
u

although the 'e' centered right on top of the 'u.'

[sluggo]

Vielen dank, Larry. Noch ein bier für dich!