You’ve heard me complain about how, while people will tell you that “the Germans have a word for that”, German actually has too few words, and one thing that makes English so beautiful is its rich vocabulary.
(If you haven’t heard me rant about it, all of those “the Germans have a word for that” words are just compound words that work just as well in English – German just makes things confusing by leaving out the spaces or hyphens. (E.g., “Schadenfreude” is just “damage-joy”. It sounds weird in English, but that’s just because it’s not established as a common phrase.) This compound-word game can be a lot of fun at parties, but it doesn’t help you when you realize German doesn’t really have different words for “proof” and “evidence”.)
So, after two paragraphs of preamble, here’s the list (at the time of writing, this list has only two items, but I may extend it over the years):
- “schmatzen” (verb). This word refers either to the act of chewing with your mouth open, or mouth sounds that sound like it. E.g., your cat might pounce on your chest and wake you up with schmatz sounds, even though he’s not actually eating at the time.
- “lutschen” (verb). To lick or suck on something that is predominantly or entirely in one’s mouth, e.g. a bon-bon, lollipop, or dick.