Zwockel
Zwockel , also Zwoggel or Zwuckel , is a nickname that used to be more common in two different regions of southwest Germany . In the Palatinate , this was the name given to officials from the Bavarian regions on the right bank of the Rhine , and soldiers from Austria in Mainz and Frankfurt am Main . Sometimes "Zwockel" or "Zwuckel" also describes a short person in the sense of a toddler or pejorative a person with little assertiveness.
use
Palatinate region
In what is now the Rhineland-Palatinate region of the Palatinate, which belonged to the Kingdom and then to the Free State of Bavaria from 1816 until the end of World War II , the name Zwockel, always written with ck , applied to the old Bavarian officials, mainly from Munich . The use of the name can be traced back to around 1870 until around after the First World War. The well-read Palatinate dialect poet Paul Münch (1879–1951) used the word frequently in his poems, including in general for Old Bavaria.
In Neustadt an der Weinstrasse , the Zwockelsbrücke , a road bridge, has been running west of the main train station on the Deutsche Weinstrasse over the Mannheim – Saarbrücken railway since the 1850s .
Mainz / Frankfurt region
In the former federal fortress of Mainz ( Rheinhessen region ), today's capital of Rhineland-Palatinate, and in Frankfurt am Main , the former seat of the German Confederation , Austrian soldiers were already known as Zwockel or, as spelled as spoken, Zwoggel before 1870 .
Other places
In the Rhenish dictionary , the locations Bad Kreuznach and Koblenz-Güls for “Zwockel” and “Zwoggel” refer to “Zwuckel” and the meaning “people who lag behind in growth; Tot; sloppy guy "called.
origin
As is not unusual for such a jargon expression, various folk etymological explanations are offered. The topic is dealt with seriously by the dialect dictionaries .
Palatinate dictionary
The Palatinate Dictionary gives two interpretations:
After the first, concerning the Palatinate, the word on the name of the first district president of the might Rhine circle Franz Xaver von Zwack go back to the Bavarian King Max Joseph summoned in 1816 in this office and its name with Bavarian dialect coloring about Zwock was pronounced. The people of the Palatinate made fun of the narrow-minded and formalistic way of thinking and working of the civil servants by reducing the name of the district president to Zwockel (or "Zwockl") for his subordinates.
For the Mainz area, the explanation given is that the word is a reference to a branch as a standard on the headgear of Austrian soldiers. According to this, the Austrian federal troops , who were stationed here during the time of the Mainz fortress, attached a three-leaved oak leaves or pine rice as a further standard on the headgear. This self "Zwoagerl" (by the Austrians sprigs ) called utensil intended by the citizens of the fortress to Zwoggel been garbled and gradually as pars pro toto have been used for its support in general.
Mainz dictionary
The Mainz dictionary names the Bohemian word "Cvok" ( button ) as the starting word . For the badges of rank of the k. k. Army used it made every graduate a Cvocky (pronounced: Zwotschki). From this the corruption Zwoggel arose. However, such a derivation is opposed to the fact that in the k. k. Army buttons as badges of rank did not even exist.
Individual evidence
- ↑ People and Empire . Volume 4th edition 6th Volk und Reich Verlag, Berlin / Prague / Vienna / Amsterdam 1928, p. 294 .
- ↑ a b Werner Hesse: First Zwackh, then Zwockh, then Zwoagl and Zwogl . On the etymological traces of the Palatinate word Zwockel for Bavaria and the Zwockelsbrücke in Neustadt. In: Die Rheinpfalz , local edition Mittelhaardter Rundschau . No. 162 . Ludwigshafen July 15, 2000.
- ^ Paul Horn : The German soldier language . 1905, p. 41 (Reprinted in paperback, Nabu Press, 2010).
- ↑ Rhenish Dictionary : Zwuckel . tape 9 , column 922 ( online ).
- ↑ Palatinate Dictionary : Zwockel . tape 6 , column 1760 ( online ).
- ^ Karl Schramm : Mainz dictionary . Verlag Hermann Schmidt, Mainz 2003, ISBN 3-87439-651-7 , p. 180 f .