# Meaning of Kitsch

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/meaning-of-kitsch/197721>\
**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:** 1\
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**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")

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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.

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