[jkire]

Fundamentally, English is a flexible enough language that if any of these concepts became common enough they would become ordinary words (probably lifted directly from German).

This has actually happened, for example Blitzkrieg (commonly the "blitz"); now this does not simply mean "lightning war", it very much references a particular part of a particular war. Also, Zeitgeist is used in English, but doesn't simply translate to "spirit of the time".

Often such compound words mean more than the sum of their parts (as I guess the OP kind of meant), which is what makes them interesting to other languages. OTOH, it seems pretty rare these constructs actually describe something that English doesn't have a word/phrase for already. In fact, I would say that its not so much that German has such constructs in their language that makes them interesting, and more that as a different culture they have different words to describe different concepts.

Edit: I should probably point out that I am a native English speaker that can speak fluently Norwegian. "Ohrwurm" and "Wunderkind" are such nonsense examples in this case; they are literal translations (just without the space, and are understandable from any Scandinavian language), and they are pretty much anti examples. Using foreign words that mean exactly the same as the English equivalents is nothing but pretentious, and doesn't support his central argument at all.

[ScottBurson]

> English is a flexible enough language that if any of these concepts became common enough they would become ordinary words

That reminded me of this great quote: "The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary." -- James Nicoll

[dublinben]

>Also, Zeitgeist is used in English, but doesn't simply translate to "spirit of the time".

Except is generally does. That is still the primary definition in any common dictionary, and the understood meaning of this word.

[weinzierl]

Native German speaker here and I find the way Zeitgeist is used in English strange sometimes. I feel the word is often used synonymous to fashion or for "things currently popular" in English. A good example is Google's Zeitgeist which gives the popular searches for just one year. This is not something we would call Zeitgeist in German, I think.

In German we would say "Goethe captured the Zeitgeist of his epoch", on the other hand saying "Dark rimmed glass are in the Zeitgeist" would be strange.

[vacri]

To me, zeitgeist (in English) is closer to 'fashionable fad' than 'spirit of the time'. Zeitgeist for me fits "People are using object/service X" better than "migrant crisis in europe is swinging politics to the right". I see zeitgeist used around fads a lot more than I see it around socio-political movements.

[jkire]

Really? To me that sort of is the closest translation, but it doesn't really hit the nail on the head. But maybe that's just my weird linguistic background.

[PeCaN]

Maybe it's a regional thing? My understanding of how people use it is still ‘spirit of the time’.

[tunichtgut]

Blitzkrieg is like "a war being done quick" or "a war which wont last long and to be ended quick".

I think the key is the understanding of "Blitz", which is associated with things like "fast" "hitting hard" "dangerous" "powerfull" "in a short amount of time" "to release a high amount of energy in a short amount of time" (and so on).

All of these words, formed like a tag cloud, are meshed into the the idea "Blitz" added to the german word for war ("Krieg").

If i think about the german language, its all about abstraction (and precision).

Waldläufer Himmelstürmer Götterdämmerung Doppelgänger Landstreicher Faulpelz Südseeplantagenbesitzer feine Pinkel Großkopferten Arschgeweih;

there could be hundred of those, invented, changed and transported through the centuries.

[aninhumer]

> for example Blitzkrieg (commonly the "blitz"); now this does not simply mean "lightning war", it very much references a particular part of a particular war.

It's not just commonly "The Blitz", that's the only term used to describe that specific period of bombing.

If people use the word "Blitzkreig" in English, they're talking about the military strategy (usually only used in the context of WW2, but still).

In fact, The Blitz isn't really even an example of what would be referred to as Blitzkreig.