One of the most dangerous of all the pseudo-Anglicisms, this German term can even mislead native English speakers. Yes, there is an English word wellness. Yes, it can be used in English as an arch and irritating synonym for good health. But there the resemblance ends. Die Wellness is a set of undemanding activities offered at a spa or health club for customers who are too weak, or sometimes too lazy, to take part in a proper fitness programme: massage, soaking in a hot pool or going for a relaxing stroll. The Duden Fremdwörterbuch defines die Wellness as "durch leichte körperliche Betätigung oder Anwendungen erzieltes Wohlbefinden," but this does not accurately represent current German usage. Die Wellness is not a state of being, as in English, but an action or a service. One does not aspire to die Wellness: one practices die Wellness by lying in hot water. The term is favoured since it seems exotic and virtuous, but is often a euphemism for the second rate. If a German hotel has a small pool, but no sports equipment, the sign on the door will say Wellnessbereich instead of Fitnessbereich. This Anglicism probably developed as a fragment of a longer original term such as das Wellnessprogramm and may have been helped in its spread through the German-speaking world by the title of a 1994 Anthony Hopkins comedy, The Road to Wellville (Willkommen in Wellville). It ranks as a borderline pseudo-Anglicism, since it is not completely unintelligible, but its core German meaning is inaccessible to a native English speaker. There are some indications that it may be making a round trip: it has appeared in many badly translated or badly edited English texts and may be in the process of being picked up and used by native English speakers in an abridgement of the German sense. Die Wellness is capitalized, hypenated, given feminine gender and is not inflected. ... Read More
Sonnyboy, der
This is one of the great pseudo-Anglicisms, as it is often unquestioningly employed by bilingual people. It refers to a male who radiates smiling charm. Die Sonnyboys are mostly aged between 20 and 50. The term has for example been applied in 2008 to Jürgen Klinsmann, the coach of the Bayern München football team, in praise of his amiable grin and ability to get people on his side. Der Sonnyboy is not always a positive character: he may even be a con artist. But you can't help liking the guy. We don't really have an equivalent expression in English.
Der Sonnyboy is capitalized, given masculine gender, inflected with -s- in the genitive and is sometimes spelled der Sunnyboy though the Duden prefers the spelling with -o-. Its origin is a complete mystery.
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Set, das
The gender of this Anglicism for a placemat on a dining table has not been finally established, as das Set (genitive: des Set) or der Set (genitive: des Sets) are possible, according to Canoo. The word can be made more specific by speaking of a Tischset . The origin is unclear, though there may be a connection to the English verb, to set the table, or the noun, a setting, meaning the (countable) ensembles of cutlery and serviette arranged at each place by a waiter before a meal begins. ... Read More
Shootingstar, der
Not something or someone who is crashing and burning, but a rising star in entertainment or politics. Although English does have an expression, shooting star, for a meteorite that expires during Earth entry, the German term is clearly a pseudo-Anglicism, since it is not intelligible in the German sense to a monolingual English speaker. Curiously, there is an annual award for "der European Shooting Star" (not hyphenated) from an organization with the semi-English name "die European Film Promotion". This prize for up and coming actors and actresses is awarded in Berlin in blithe disregard for the English language. Capitalized, either hyphenated (der Shooting-Star) or merged, and pronounced with the stress on -shoo- rather than on -star-. ... Read More
Handy, das
This is the pseudo-Anglicism par excellence, having come into use in the 1990s as the standard German term for a mobile phone. It perplexed monolingual English-speakers for nearly a decade before it dawned on Germans that this word is not English. There have been several attempts to discover the etymology of this German noun: some think das Handy derives from the model name of an early, Japanese-manufactured cellphone which was sold in Germany. Others wonder if it was not spawned by a misunderstanding when a German read some some advertising bumph about the new "handy telephones" coming onto the market. Capitalized, given neuter gender and pronounced with the German vowel -a-, it sounds to an English-speaker like "hundy". Canoo.net validates two plural spellings: die Handies and die Handys. Compound forms include die Handynummer (mobile telephone number). ... Read More
Shooting, das
Das Shooting is a pseudo-Anglicism for a photo session, for example when photographers pose models and products for a poster or advertising picture. In its fuller form, das Foto-Shooting, the expression may just be intelligible to a monolingual English-speaker. ... Read More
Beamer, der
A German (and Dutch) term for a computer projector, and not a slang term for a BMW car, as "Beamer" is in English. This false friend catches many Germans (and some English-speakers) out and is an eminent example of the pseudo-Anglicism, since the projector meaning utterly baffles the monolingual English-speaker. The genesis of der Beamer (genitive: des Beamers) is unknown, but many Germans remember the Star Trek catchphrase "Beam me up, Scotty," and associate it with this. ... Read More
Casting, das
An audition. This noun (initial capital obligatory) has no affinity with the English verb cast in the sense of forming metal (Gießen), throwing a dice (Werfen) or placing a fishing-line well away from shore (Angeln). Its ancestor is an English noun, the cast, meaning the team of actors or singers chosen to represent the dramatis personae in a play or opera, and its derived verb, to cast, for the director's action of selecting a cast for a film, play or opera. No one could call this an elegant verb, for it still has that makeshift feel which attaches to English nouns when they have been converted into verbs for want of anything better to use. An odour of jargon hangs around it, since it is hardly a term that a child would readily understand, and the passiveness of the actor or singer who is cast gives this verb an impersonal, blunt tone. When the credits roll up at the end of a film, the person responsible for hiring the members of cast will be mentioned with, "Casting: Joe Bloggs", among the grips and the gaffers and other strange professions, and the gossips may wonder if some of the ingenues were not chosen on that mythical item of Hollywood furniture, the casting couch.
Having arrived in German, das Casting has suffered yet another shift of meaning which brings it to the verge of being a pseudo-Anglicism, for it no longer denotes a professional skill or task, but an event: ein Casting is an audition or talent quest, and not just to choose a cast, but practically any sort of performing talent, or even models for a photo-shoot. Der Casting-Show is a television talent-quest programme in the style of American Idol, where the audience enjoys hearing the talentless or unfortunate excoriated by the panel. On the return journey into English, casting can be a dangerous false friend, since most of these meanings are not found in the English lexicon and preceding the English word casting with the indefinite article "a" suggests to an English ear that the word is being used as an adjective. A German may say, "I am going to a casting," and I would wonder: a casting what? A casting appointment? Or a casting couch?
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