500 Foreign Words and Phrases You Should Know to Sound Smart by Peter Archer Page A
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Authors: Peter Archer
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Kinder, Kirche, Küche (German) (KIN-der KEERK-e KOOK-e) (phrase) (several alternate versions)
Children, church, kitchen. Although this is now regarded as a reactionary idea, during the period of the rise and triumph of Nazism (1933–1945), it was regarded as the ideal expression of German womanhood. As a phrase, it predated Hitler, but the Nazis believed it perfectly summed up the role of women: to be subordinate to the family, religion, and the state.
kismet (Turkish) (KIZ-met) (noun)
In Persian philosophy, the concept of fate. It has been used as the title of a number of films, as well as a character in the D.C. Comics universe.
KISMET has decreed that we two should meet, have dinner, go back to my house, and make out. Who are we to pit ourselves against fate?
kitsch (German) (KITCH) (adj.)
“Art” that is vulgar and tasteless.
Nothing could be more KITSCH than the painting over your bed of Justin Bieber. Unless, of course, it was a picture of Justin Bieber made out of dried pasta. Oh… wait… sorry. I didn’t see what’s hanging on the other wall .
klutz (Yiddish) (KLUTZ) (noun)
A clumsy person. The original term in Yiddish meant a lumpy mass, which describes a good many klutzes of our acquaintance.
I don’t like to do anything involving fine-motor coordination, because I’m such a KLUTZ when it comes to making something by hand. I’m much better at stuff like football .
Kriegspiel (German) (KREEG-shpeel) (noun)
War game. It often refers to a variety of chess invented in 1899 (though it didn’t become widely popular). In this variant, the player can see her own pieces but can’t see those of her opponent. A referee informs her if a given move is legal or illegal. Not surprisingly, the spread of computers has increased the popularity of this game.
Kulturkampf (German) (KUL-toor-KAHMPF) (noun)
Specifically, this term, translated as “culture struggle,” refers to the anti-Catholic campaign waged by Prussian politician Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) against the Catholic Church. More generally, it refers to any cultural conflict that has strong political overtones.
Since the 1980s, the Republican Party in the United States has waged a KULTURKAMPF over such issues as gay marriage and school textbooks. At least on the issue of gay marriage, it appears to be losing .
Nota Bene
The issue of cultural struggle was closely linked to politics in Germany. Adolf Hitler was a violent opponent of what he regarded as “degenerate tendencies” in modern art. After his rise to power, in 1937 the Nazi government organized a display of such art to show the German people what they were fighting against. Unfortunately for the Nazis, the exhibit, which included paintings by such modern masters as Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Max Beckmann, drew unprecedented numbers of viewers, and the Nazis hastily closed the exhibit.
“To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is hardly to be hoped. The prizes which some have received for their multiplicity of languages may be sufficient to excite industry, but can hardly generate confidence.”
—Samuel Johnson
L
Labor omnia vincit (Latin) (LAH-bor OHM-nee-ah WIN-kit) (phrase)
Hard work conquers all. From the Georgics by Virgil (70 B.C –19 B.C. ), this expresses a typically Roman attitude; not that all Romans followed it in practice. In practice, what the motto really meant was, “Hard work by slaves and the Plebians conquers all so that we, the Senators and the upper class, can lie around on our couches drinking wine and eating grapes and occasionally overthrowing the emperor.”
laissez faire (French) (LEH-say FARE) (adj.)
Literally, “leave it be.” Generally applied as an economic term, specifying a philosophy according to which the economy should be free from government control or interference, allowing market forces to work out all problems. This school of
Kinder, Kirche, Küche (German) (KIN-der KEERK-e KOOK-e) (phrase) (several alternate versions)
Children, church, kitchen. Although this is now regarded as a reactionary idea, during the period of the rise and triumph of Nazism (1933–1945), it was regarded as the ideal expression of German womanhood. As a phrase, it predated Hitler, but the Nazis believed it perfectly summed up the role of women: to be subordinate to the family, religion, and the state.
kismet (Turkish) (KIZ-met) (noun)
In Persian philosophy, the concept of fate. It has been used as the title of a number of films, as well as a character in the D.C. Comics universe.
KISMET has decreed that we two should meet, have dinner, go back to my house, and make out. Who are we to pit ourselves against fate?
kitsch (German) (KITCH) (adj.)
“Art” that is vulgar and tasteless.
Nothing could be more KITSCH than the painting over your bed of Justin Bieber. Unless, of course, it was a picture of Justin Bieber made out of dried pasta. Oh… wait… sorry. I didn’t see what’s hanging on the other wall .
klutz (Yiddish) (KLUTZ) (noun)
A clumsy person. The original term in Yiddish meant a lumpy mass, which describes a good many klutzes of our acquaintance.
I don’t like to do anything involving fine-motor coordination, because I’m such a KLUTZ when it comes to making something by hand. I’m much better at stuff like football .
Kriegspiel (German) (KREEG-shpeel) (noun)
War game. It often refers to a variety of chess invented in 1899 (though it didn’t become widely popular). In this variant, the player can see her own pieces but can’t see those of her opponent. A referee informs her if a given move is legal or illegal. Not surprisingly, the spread of computers has increased the popularity of this game.
Kulturkampf (German) (KUL-toor-KAHMPF) (noun)
Specifically, this term, translated as “culture struggle,” refers to the anti-Catholic campaign waged by Prussian politician Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) against the Catholic Church. More generally, it refers to any cultural conflict that has strong political overtones.
Since the 1980s, the Republican Party in the United States has waged a KULTURKAMPF over such issues as gay marriage and school textbooks. At least on the issue of gay marriage, it appears to be losing .
Nota Bene
The issue of cultural struggle was closely linked to politics in Germany. Adolf Hitler was a violent opponent of what he regarded as “degenerate tendencies” in modern art. After his rise to power, in 1937 the Nazi government organized a display of such art to show the German people what they were fighting against. Unfortunately for the Nazis, the exhibit, which included paintings by such modern masters as Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Vincent van Gogh, and Max Beckmann, drew unprecedented numbers of viewers, and the Nazis hastily closed the exhibit.
“To use two languages familiarly and without contaminating one by the other, is very difficult; and to use more than two is hardly to be hoped. The prizes which some have received for their multiplicity of languages may be sufficient to excite industry, but can hardly generate confidence.”
—Samuel Johnson
L
Labor omnia vincit (Latin) (LAH-bor OHM-nee-ah WIN-kit) (phrase)
Hard work conquers all. From the Georgics by Virgil (70 B.C –19 B.C. ), this expresses a typically Roman attitude; not that all Romans followed it in practice. In practice, what the motto really meant was, “Hard work by slaves and the Plebians conquers all so that we, the Senators and the upper class, can lie around on our couches drinking wine and eating grapes and occasionally overthrowing the emperor.”
laissez faire (French) (LEH-say FARE) (adj.)
Literally, “leave it be.” Generally applied as an economic term, specifying a philosophy according to which the economy should be free from government control or interference, allowing market forces to work out all problems. This school of
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