Bünzli

Bünzli is on the one hand a Swiss family name, on the other hand a derogatory term in Swiss German for an intellectually immobile, narrow-minded and strongly socially compatible person, thus a synonym for philistines .

family name

The family name Bünzli is long-established in the Zurich Oberland .

The linguistic origin is not clear; there are essentially two theses.

One interpretation traces the name back to the Middle High German binez, binz 'bulrush, grass-like swamp plant', which also appears as a place name, for example Binz in the municipality of Maur (Canton of Zurich) or in the (no longer assignable) farm name (bi den) Binzen . According to this interpretation, Bünzli would be a residential name.

Another interpretation traces the name back to the Middle High German bunze "calibrated wine barrel". This would be the origin of the nickname for a fat person.

The tracing back of Bünzli to an Old High German first name Bunzo , however, is doubtful, since the existence of such a thing is questionable.

Well-known namesake:

Franz Bünzli (1811–1872), National Councilor and City President of Solothurn

Philistines

The appellative meaning 'philistine', which is common in modern Swiss German, only got the word in the course of the 20th century. The fourth volume of the Swiss Idiotikon , which appeared in 1901, does not yet know them.

The starting point for the change from the family name to the appellative is likely to be the neat and economical Züs Bünzlin from Gottfried Keller's novella The Three Just Comb Makers (1856). But the breakthrough of today's importance Spies citizen has' probably Fredy Scheim helped with its popular stage character Heiri Bünzli that in his dialect Posse cheese producer Heiri Bünzli and in written by him films Bünzli's big-city experiences (1930, directed by Robert Wohlmuth ) and Lätz Ohä ! De Bünzli is getting energetic! (1935) plays the main role. Both films are lost .

Web links

Wiktionary: Bünzli - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Christoph Landolt and Martin Graf: Bünzli , in: Wortgeschichten, published online by the editorial team of Schweizerischen Idiotikons, contribution from July 4, 2012.
Switzerland in a word: Bünzli , radio broadcast on SRF 3, November 17, 2013.

Individual references and sources

↑ Family Name Book of Switzerland, ed. by the Swiss Society for Family Research with the assistance of the Federal Office for Civil Status and the Swiss Civil Status Offices, Zurich 1940 (and later published twice), under Bünzli (also online ); Viktor Schobinger, Alfred Egli, Hans Kläui: Zurich family names. Origin, distribution and meaning of the names of long-established Zurich families, Zurich 1994, p. 52.
^ Viktor Schobinger, Alfred Egli, Hans Kläui: Zürcher Familiennames. Origin, distribution and meaning of the names of long-established Zurich families, Zurich 1994, p. 52.
↑ Joseph Karlmann Brechenmacher : Eymologisches Dictionary of German family names, 2 volumes, Limburg / Lahn 1957-1963; here Vol. I, p. 248; see. also the word article Bunze in the German dictionary, Vol. II, Sp. 531.
↑ See Ernst Förstemann: Altdeutsches namenbuch, first volume: Personal names . Second, completely revised edition, P. Hanstein's Verlag, Bonn 1900, Sp. 345.

↑ The Lemma Bünzli, which cites the Swiss Idioticon in Vol. IV Col. 413 in the meaning of 'pustule, nodule', should be kept away from this. At the specified location, the little stick , which is only used once, is interpreted as a misprint for frequent sticking .

^ Word stories, published by the Schweizerischen Idiotikon, article from July 4, 2012.

↑ At IMDb Scheim's sound film list does not begin until 1942 with the film De Chegelkönig by Edmund Heuberger ; his two early sound films are not shown. There is no entry at all on filmportal.de . Only Scheim's post-war films are registered here.

[1] Family Name Book of Switzerland, ed. by the Swiss Society for Family Research with the assistance of the Federal Office for Civil Status and the Swiss Civil Status Offices, Zurich 1940 (and later published twice), under Bünzli (also online ); Viktor Schobinger, Alfred Egli, Hans Kläui: Zurich family names. Origin, distribution and meaning of the names of long-established Zurich families, Zurich 1994, p. 52.

[2] Viktor Schobinger, Alfred Egli, Hans Kläui: Zürcher Familiennames. Origin, distribution and meaning of the names of long-established Zurich families, Zurich 1994, p. 52.

[3] Joseph Karlmann Brechenmacher : Eymologisches Dictionary of German family names, 2 volumes, Limburg / Lahn 1957-1963; here Vol. I, p. 248; see. also the word article Bunze in the German dictionary, Vol. II, Sp. 531.

[4] See Ernst Förstemann: Altdeutsches namenbuch, first volume: Personal names . Second, completely revised edition, P. Hanstein's Verlag, Bonn 1900, Sp. 345.

[5] The Lemma Bünzli, which cites the Swiss Idioticon in Vol. IV Col. 413 in the meaning of 'pustule, nodule', should be kept away from this. At the specified location, the little stick , which is only used once, is interpreted as a misprint for frequent sticking .

[6] Word stories, published by the Schweizerischen Idiotikon, article from July 4, 2012.

[7] At IMDb Scheim's sound film list does not begin until 1942 with the film De Chegelkönig by Edmund Heuberger ; his two early sound films are not shown. There is no entry at all on filmportal.de . Only Scheim's post-war films are registered here.