Nulp
The word nulpe , also dialectally nulpe, is colloquially used to describe a person who is considered by the speaker to be a fool, failure, inefficiency or an energetic or strange person. However, the word has only had this meaning since the late 19th century, when it appeared in Saxon and subsequently established itself primarily in Berlin .
In their “German Dictionary” , the Brothers Grimm also refer to the name “der Nulp” (also “Zulp”) or “die Nulpe” for a cigar in the Leipzig-speaking area, which was found in the middle of the 19th century it is in Karl Weinhold's "Contributions to a Silesian Dictionary" as a name for a tobacco pipe .
The tobacco pipe - according to Küpper - has “a lot” in common with a pacifier , and from the turn of the 19th to the 20th century the nose , which resembles a suction bag , was also called this. If one follows this line of argument, then based on the pipe and pacifier that is sucked on, the word nulpe could have been used in a figurative sense for people who are on the spiritual level of a toddler and still suckle on the suction bag. The German etymological dictionary suspects Nulpe as a further education to zero .
Other idioms that use the figurative meaning of the word are "strange nulp" for a strange person (proven from 1900), "standing like a nulp" for having been exposed or for having to endure an injustice without contradiction and like that Previously proven from the last third of the 19th century: "Nulpe doing" for acting guilty or unsuspecting or pretending to be ignorant.
Trivia
In the plenary session of the Hessian state parliament on July 13, 2016, the parliamentary group leader Janine Wissler of the party Die Linke called the Hessian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution a Nulpenverein .
Individual evidence
- ^ Dictionary synonyms , revised and edited by Herbert Görner and Günter Kempcke, Munich 1999, p. 206 (Lemma "Dummkopf"), p. 509 (Lemma "Nulpe") and p. 738 (Lemma "Versager")
- ↑ a b c d Heinz Küpper: Dictionary of German colloquial language. 1st edition, 6th reprint. Stuttgart, Munich, Düsseldorf, Leipzig: Klett, 1997, page 576; Lemma "Nulpe"
- ^ Karl Weinhold contributions to a Silesian dictionary , 2 volumes, Vienna 1855
- ↑ Nulp, nulpe. In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm (Hrsg.): German dictionary . tape 13 : N, O, P, Q - (VII). S. Hirzel, Leipzig 1889, Sp. 981 ( woerterbuchnetz.de ).
- ^ Etymological dictionary of German. dtv, 1995, p. 935.
- ↑ Left: Protection of the Constitution a Nulpenverein. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . July 14, 2016.