# Meaning of Kitsch **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 26, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721 "2003-08-26T12:28:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ponster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponster/32/17081_2.png) [@Ponster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponster)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/1 "2003-08-26T12:28:28Z")
I was at a pub quiz last night and one of the more interesting questions was: “The word ‘kitsch’ comes from German. What does it mean in German?” Now I had to leave before I got the answer so I was hoping that someone here could help me. So far from asking friends and surfing I’ve discovered that it means; Rubbish Rubbish collected on the streets that is put to use again It doesn’t come from German but Yiddish The Merriam Webster says that it’s “something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality” which is what I know the meaning in English and French to be. Can anyone help me trace it? ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/2 "2003-08-26T12:38:36Z")
From Webster’s: > [@](#): > > kitsch 'kich\ n [G, kitsch, trash] (1925) : something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality I’ve only heard it used as a Yiddish word, but Yiddish has a LOT of German in it. I woiuld guess that the German word simply meant “trash”, but the Yiddish usage of the word is “something that appeals to popular or lowbrow taste and is often of poor quality.” A similar instance is the word “shmuck”. The opriginal german word means “jewel,” but in Yiddish it is used to refer to “the family jewels” (_i.e._, the male genitelia). Barry ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/3 "2003-08-26T12:41:30Z")
Errr… make that “genitalia” :smack: :wally ---
**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:** [August 26, 2003, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/4 "2003-08-26T14:19:17Z")
At least to a speaker of modern standard German _Kitsch_ is not discernibly derived from another word. The [Wikipedia article](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kitsch) about Kitsch mentions an origin among 1870s Munich art dealers and a possibly derivation from dialectal _kitschen_ = sweeping [a floor, the sidewalk etc]. The _Duden_ dictionary (doorstop edition) that I just consulted, OTOH, refers to an archaic dialectal word _kitschen_ = to smear. I don’t know about Munich dialect but there sure is no related word in standard German. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/5 "2003-08-26T14:36:09Z")
Actually, Yiddish doesn’t just have a lot of German in it, it is actually a dialect of High German… written using the Hebrew alphabet. More from the Wikipedia about High German [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/High\_German](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German) And about Yiddish [http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish\_language](http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_language) ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/6 "2003-08-26T15:03:07Z")
Origins aside, I’ve seen the term in print referring to cheap art and music. Bric-a-brac knick-knacks that you’d see in yard sales or souvenir shops. Cheap crafts. Music in the “Mickey Mouse” band style from the Swing Era (plug in your favorite Lawrence Welk type band here). ---
**Author:** ![occ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8c91f0/32.png) [@occ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occ)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/7 "2003-08-26T15:35:28Z")
Certainly, it’s German for “the tragically ludicrous”…the second meaning being “the ludicrously tragic”. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721/8 "2003-08-26T15:46:57Z")
Milan Kundera says that kitsch is “the absence of shit” meaning that it denies the dirty, messy aspects of being human. Kitsch is always “happy crap” if you take my meaning. It is not only cheap and chintzy, but generally reflects a particular worldview of clean-washed perfection.