Womanizer

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As a womanizer (English womanizer / womanizer ) refers to men who entertain frequently (usually sexual) encounters with various women, so promiscuous life. Synonyms for womanizer include Belami , Homme à Femmes , Papagallo , " Casanova ," " Don Juan ", womanizer , womanizer and philanderer .

Women heroes who have no serious intentions but intend a love adventure , a sexual relationship , a flirt or the like and thereby cause later grief or lovesickness are often referred to as heartbreakers .

history

From the 18th century is the heartbreaker (also: Heart Breaker ) as a term known for someone who is on not always honorable ways favor endeavors of women; Only the name Herzensdieb is older . Both go back to the idea of ​​the broken heart as the seat of emotion , which has been common in German love poetry since the Middle Ages . Similar to the old philanderer , but sometimes with a negative connotation .

Also very early in literature, the term heartbreaker was used for death personified .

In the 1920s, Heartbreaker found its way into the language of the theater and referred to the role of the adolescent lover who (supposedly or actually) carelessly plays with feelings. He was also often depicted under this name on art postcards during this time.

Historically, there are particularly successful women heroes both as purely fictional, literary figures and as real people. Their success with women was based on their social position, wealth, character traits, charisma, attractiveness, personality or sex appeal. Male celebrities in particular are often seen as women heroes.

Real historical persons

The best-known real women heroes are likely to be Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) and the former US President John F. Kennedy (1917–1963). Kennedy exceeds the number of love affairs that have been ascribed to fictional or purely literary figures.

Another American president, Bill Clinton (* 1946), was often referred to as a "womanizer" in the course of the Lewinsky affair in 1998; since then this word has also been known in German-speaking countries.

Even Mick Jagger (born 1943), had a number of sexual contacts, u. a. to Uschi Obermaier . And the singer and composer Udo Jürgens (1934–2014) confessed himself variously - for example. B. 2012 in a talk show with Markus Lanz - open to many female relationships. Last but not least, actors like George Clooney or Brad Pitt have been assigned to the category of women heroes or womanizer.

Fictional, literary figures

The most famous womanizer in art is probably Don Juan , protagonist in the comedy Don Juan by Molière and in the opera Don Giovanni by Mozart (text from his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte ). The number of love affairs of Don Giovanni is sung by his servant Leporello in the so-called “register aria”, in which he mentions well over a thousand wives of his master, “1003 in Spain alone”. (Since the large number of names he wrote down does not fit on a normal sheet of paper, an excessively long piece of paper is required for his list, which he has folded several times in a zigzag shape. Based on Mozart's opera or Leporello's long list of women, it is still in the term Leporello format is common in printing and paper technology .)

The German film Nur über meine Leiche , a bizarre fantasy comedy from 1995, revolves around a heartbreaker. He, who has just been shot, makes a deal with death: if he brings happiness to three heartbroken women within three days, he will get his life back. He succeeds in doing this.

literature

  • The Duden . The large dictionary of the German language in eight volumes. Volume 3: Fas-Hev. 2nd Edition. Bibliographisches Institut und Brockhaus AG, Mannheim u. a. 1993.
  • Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm : German Dictionary . Volume 4, 2nd section (HIJ), edited by Moritz Heyne. S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1877.
  • Heinz Küpper : Illustrated lexicon of German colloquial language. Volume 4: skin food. Klett, Stuttgart 1983.

Web links

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

Individual evidence

  1. Duden online : Frauenheld, der. Retrieved October 22, 2019; Quote: "[young] man who has many love affairs, lots of success with women".
  2. Section Satires. In: Johann Joachim Eschenburg : Collection of examples on the theory and literature of the fine sciences . tape 2 . F. Nicolai, Berlin / Stettin 1788, p. 203 ( page view in Google Book search).
  3. ^ Documentary by Annette Harlfinger: Kennedy and the women. In: ZDF History . 2013 (500th broadcast in the documentary series; video on YouTube: 42:17 minutes; program information ).
  4. ^ Documentary by Michael Funken, Johanna Kaack u. a .: The great seducers. In: ZDF History . 2014 ( video on YouTube: 44:11 minutes; program information ).