Duckmouse
Duckmuuser is a slang term for a person who, out of fear or fear of losing the sympathy of a social group, agrees with their opinion , or adapts in principle and never expresses or contradicts their own opinion.
Meyers Großer Konversations-Lexikon described Duckmäuser as one:
“Quiet, sneak, d. H. one who feigns humility towards the mighty. "
Etymologically, the word parts come from the Middle High German tocken (to hide, to sink) and musen (to catch mice, be cunning, cheat). In the German dictionary of the Brothers Grimm the derivation of "Duckmaus" is accepted as a mouse that hides, and explains that the word denotes "a secret, deceitful, obdurate, head-hungry, treacherous, deceitful person". In Austria they speak of "duckmausa", in Switzerland of "Dunkelmüser". An old spelling was also "duckelmaus" or "duckelmäuser". The noun "Duckmäuserei" was also common.
In popular parlance, a ducky mouse is a very humble, quick-witted person who is always quick to submit. However, the meaning of the term has changed. In the 19th century it was still used in the sense of "keeping secret, seeking one's advantage under the appearance of humility ", thus comparable to a hypocrite , in modern parlance also to a slipper .
Use in literature
- My father was a dry taps, a sober coward, but I drink my schnapps and am a great emperor. ( Heinrich Heine , The Emperor of China )
- We ought to become couch potatoes and dumbbells who fear our mother at the prince , and yet we did not get land and freedom by reading books and chatting, but with good spears and long swords! ( Gottfried Keller , Zurich Novellas. Ursula )
- Listen, you duckies, either you drank sweet wine or you are a secret schemer. ( Gustav Freytag , debit and credit )
- By pushing through, sitting in a corner, living in the shadow like a shadowy, they make a duty out of it: as duty, their life appears as humility, as humility it is more proof of piety ... ( Friedrich Nietzsche , Der Antichrist )
See also
literature
- Etymological dictionary of German. dtv, ISBN 3423325119
Individual evidence
- ↑ here online at zeno.org