List of pseudo-German words in English

This is a list of pseudo-German words adapted from the German language in such a way that their meanings in English are not readily understood by native speakers of German (usually because of the new circumstances in which these words are used in English).

• blitz or "the Blitz" (chiefly British use) – The sustained attack by the German Luftwaffe during 1940–1941, which began after the Battle of Britain. It was adapted from "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). The word "Blitz" (a bolt of lightning) was not used in German in its aerial-war aspect; it acquired an entirely new usage in English during World War II.
  In British English, 'blitz' is also used as a verb in a culinary context, to mean liquidise in a blender, a food processor or with a handheld blender stick.^{[citation needed]}
  For the use of 'blitz' in American football, see Blitz (gridiron football); in rugby union, see Blitz defence; for other uses, see blitz.
• hock (British only) – A German white wine. The word is derived from Hochheim am Main, a town in Germany.
• nix – nothing; its use as a verb (reject, cancel)^[1] is not used in German; synonymous with eighty-six. From a colloquial German term for 'nichts' (nothing).
• Mox nix! – From the German phrase, Es macht nichts! Often used by U.S. service personnel to mean "It doesn't matter" or "It's not important".^[2]
• strafe – In its sense of "to machine-gun troop assemblies and columns from the air", 'strafe' is an adaptation of the German word strafen (punish).

See also

 

Wiktionary has a category on English pseudo-loans from German.

• Linguistic purism in English
• List of German expressions in English
• Pseudo-anglicism

References

1. Owen W. Linzmayer (1999). Apple Confidential. San Francisco: No Starch Press. p. 242. ISBN 9781886411289 – via Internet Archive. ... after Jobs had nixed the spin-off ...
2. Partridge, Eric (1986). A Dictionary of Catch Phrases: British and American, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day (2nd ed.). p. 314.