Date:  Wed, 21 Jan 1998 22:53:15 -0600
From:  Samuel Jones <smjones1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]FACSTAFF.WISC.EDU>
Subject: Re: German word of the year - REPLY

PLEASE SEE AFTER YOUR INQUIRY -=20

>A friend, Martin Dickey, sends me this. I too don't understand it
completely

>and hope someone on ADS-L will undertake a perfect translation. -
Allan

>Metcalf

>--------------

>(from German News 1/20/98) I don't understand it completely.

>

>- "Wohlstandsmuell" Unwort des Jahres

>

>Frankfurt. Das Wort "Wohlstandsmuell" als Umschreibung von

>Arbeitsunwilligen, Arbeitsunfaehigen oder sogar kranken Menschen ist
das

>Unwort des Jahres 1997. Die Wortschoepfung geht auf Nestle-Chef
Maucher

>(sp?) zurueck, wie der Sprecher der Jury, der Germanistikprofessor

>Schlosser in Frankfurt mitteilte. Mit "Wohlstandsmuell" sei ein Gipfel
in

>der zynischen Bewertung von Menschen ausschliesslich nach ihrem
Marktwert

>erreicht. Geruegt wurden unter anderem auch die Begriffe Organspende

>und Blockadepolitik.

_____________________________________________________________

<fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><bigger>REPLY:

Saw your posting. Hope this may help.

=46irst, a quick translation of the item from the German News of 20
January 1998:

[ Frankfurt. The word "Wohlstandsmuell," as an oblique reference
[circumscription or paraphrasing] to 'people unwilling to work, people
unfit or unable to work' or even 'sick people,' is the 1997 Unword of
the Year . The word's creation is attributed to Nestl=E9 CEO [Helmut]
Maucher [Head offices of Nestl=E9 are in Vevey, Switzerland], as the
foreman of the jury, Germanistics professor Schlosser, informed us in
=46rankfurt. With "Wohlstandsmuell," a peak in the cynical evaluation of
humans/people, exclusively according to their market value,

has been reached. Also criticized were, among others, the expressions
"Organspende" [the selling of body organs for transplant] and
"Blockadepolitik." [What the USA is doing to Iraq and Cuba at the
moment - "blockade politics".]

____________________________________________________________________

And for whatever further assistance my comments may offer:

"Wohlstand" =3D "prosperity, affluence, good economic times"

"Muell" =3D "trash, rubbish, garbage"

As is so often the case, nouns in German readily combine to form other
words. In this instance, the word "Wohlstandsmuell" is produced. The
idea or concept of "Wohlstandsmuell," and no doubt its usage, has in
fact been around for sometime now and in use in a very productive,
affluent, upbeat, "throwaway" German society, which is patterned to no
small extent after the USA. The earlier meaning of the word actually
made reference to the kind and nature of rubbish, trash, or garbage
thrown away, discarded, or jettisoned by
<underline>well-heeled</underline> (maybe also
<underline>well-healed</underline> from WWII ?),
<underline>well-living</underline>, <underline>well-to-do</underline>
West Germans.  =20

What the German News report seems to signal is a rather dramatic change
in or a broadening of the meaning of "Wohlstandsmuell,": lending it a
more particular or specialized (and somewhat bitter and degrading)
meaning, so as to encompass "throw-away people" in a very productive,
affluent, upbeat, throw-away German society, "throw-away people" to
include the "Arbeitsunwilligen" (those people who do not wish to and
are unwilling to work), and the "Arbeitsunfaehigen" (those people who
are unable to work, or who are unfit for or unfit to work - i.e.,
"kranken Menschen" =3D "sick people." [unfitness for work, inability to
work, non-viability].

smjones

</bigger></fontfamily>

_______________________________

DR. SAMUEL M. JONES           =20

Professor Emertitus

Music & Latin American Studies =20

University of Wisconsin-Madison     =20

"Pen-y-Bryn" - 122 Shepard Terrace

Madison, WI 53705-3614 USA

_______________________________         =20

EMAIL: smjones1[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]facstaff.wisc.edu

_______________________________     =20

TELEPHONE: 608 + 233-2150 =20

_______________________________

         =20