# German Word for Wimp

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-word-for-wimp/575507>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [March 21, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-word-for-wimp/575507 "2011-03-21T20:07:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-word-for-wimp/575507/1 "2011-03-21T20:07:06Z")

</div>

Pepper Mill was reading about _Diary of a Wimpy Kid_ in the Boston Globe yesterday, and said that the German title translates as _I’m Surrounded by Idiots!_ because there is no German word for _wimp_.

My immediate thought was – there’s an example of Sapir-Whorf for you – German has a word _schadenfreude_ but no word for _wimp_.  
Except that it’s not true. A quick internet search reveals plenty of German words that can translate _wimp_:

> [@](#):
>
> wimp [coll.]  
> Feigling {m}  
> Schwächling {m}  
> Weichei {n} [ugs.]  
> Schlaffi {m} [ugs.]  
> Schwachmat {m} [ugs.]  
> Warmduscher {m} [ugs.]  
> Schlappschwanz {m} [ugs.]  
> Schwachmatiker {m} [ugs.]  
> Niete {f} [ugs.: Versager]  
> Knalltüte {f} [ugs.: Versager]  
> Nulpe {f} [ugs.: Feigling, Versager]  
> Schwachmatikus {m} [hum.: Schwächling]  
> Waschlappen {m} [ugs.: Feigling, Schwächling]  
> to wimp out [coll.]  
> zurückweichen [aus Angst/Schwäche]  
> to wimp out of sth. [coll.]  
> bei etw. kneifen [ugs.]  
> weakly interacting massive particle \<WIMP\>  
> schwach wechselwirkendes schweres Teilchen {n}

> **[dict.cc dictionary :: wimp :: English-German translation](https://www.dict.cc/english-german/wimp.html)**
>
> dict.cc English-German Dictionary: Translation for wimp

So why don’t they use one of these to translate _Wimp_? Are they considered too harsh for a kid’s book? or do they just decide that _I’m Surrounded by Idiots!_ is just aesthetically more pleasing?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-word-for-wimp/575507/2 "2011-03-21T21:01:36Z")

</div>

Some but by no means all of those terms would be a bit too much (literally, _Schlappschwanz_ = limp dick, _Weichei_ = soft ball).

The reason would not be that the title isn’t untranslateable, but that more often than not publishers of translated nonfiction choose not to literally translate a title. My impression is that publishers of books translated into German go for a title that is more descriptive than the original one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-word-for-wimp/575507/3 "2011-03-21T21:08:19Z")

</div>

What is the German word for Frenchman?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-word-for-wimp/575507/4 "2011-03-21T23:04:03Z")

</div>

> [@Mops](#):
>
> Some but by no means all of those terms would be a bit too much (literally, _Schlappschwanz_ = limp dick, _Weichei_ = soft ball).
> 
> The reason would not be that the title isn’t untranslateable, but that more often than not publishers of translated nonfiction choose not to literally translate a title. My impression is that publishers of books translated into German go for a title that is more descriptive than the original one.

Isn’t _Versager_ more along the lines of “loser” or “failure” (in the personal sense)? For those who don’t know German, the verb _versagen_ and its variants denote the failure of a process or machine. Hence, applied to a person it’s someone who can’t succeed and fails at everything–not quite the same as a wimp.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\
**Post date:** [March 21, 2011, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-word-for-wimp/575507/5 "2011-03-21T23:07:11Z")

</div>

Underpowered, unimpressive, mediocre, there is a perfectly good word for this in German, it’s Volkswagen.

Enjoy,  
Steven