# Unknown word in a WWII documentary series **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949 "2015-01-04T15:05:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/1 "2015-01-04T15:05:51Z")
“Nazis: Evolution of Evil” episode “Becoming Respectable.” A fair amount of this ep is devoted to [Joseph Goebbels](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302248/He-looked-hate-eyes--Jewish-photographer-captures-moment-revealed-religion-Hitler-henchman-Goebbels.html). There’s a German (I suppose) word in here that I missed, so I’ll try to spell it somewhat phonetically. > [@](#): > > A lot of the Nazi Party regarded Goebbels as the truly brilliant one among them. He was very quick-witted; he didn’t have this [LOOM-pun] cliched Prussian/German way of doing things by the book. So that was the way it sounded to me: “LOOM-pun” ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/2 "2015-01-04T15:11:48Z")
Probably “lumpen” - with a meaning along the lines of “following the herd, uninterested in new ideas or innovation”. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/3 "2015-01-04T15:17:55Z")
The German word “Lumpen” means rags. It was brought into English as part of the term “Lumpenproletariat”, used by Marx to refer to the poorest of the poor people, those who wear rags and do not make an economic contribution. In English it seems to be used more often as an adjective to mean “stupid” or “unthinking”; perhaps because this meaning is suggested by the sound of the word? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/4 "2015-01-04T16:15:16Z")
Semi relevant aside… one of the myriad of television programs running on the fictional thousands of channels in the Max Headroom universe was… “Lumpy’s Proletariat.” Made me laugh, then and now. Especially after getting the chance to twit the responsible party… ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/5 "2015-01-04T18:10:28Z")
Thanks, all! ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/6 "2015-01-04T21:09:25Z")
Marx’s word would nowadays tend to mean the ‘dull-witted, politically apathetic masses, solely concerned with their own material comfort and neglecting their historic duty to advance the revolution’ ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/7 "2015-01-04T22:24:09Z")
I never heard/saw the word in English (or even as an introduced foreign word, deserving of italics) in anything but with “proletariat,” maybe sometimes with the space and no ital. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/8 "2015-01-06T14:51:59Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > “Nazis: Evolution of Evil” episode “Becoming Respectable.” A fair amount of this ep is devoted to [Joseph Goebbels](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2302248/He-looked-hate-eyes--Jewish-photographer-captures-moment-revealed-religion-Hitler-henchman-Goebbels.html). There’s a German (I suppose) word in here that I missed, so I’ll try to spell it somewhat phonetically. > > So that was the way it sounded to me: “LOOM-pun” I haven’t watched the documentary, but perhaps the word in question was simply: _lampooned_ (as in mocked, satirized, ridiculed). The German word _Lumpen_ (=rags or, as a metaphor and curse word: scoundrel) doesn’t seem to make sense at all in this context. ---
**Author:** ![Apollon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47774/32.png) [@Apollon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollon)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2015, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/unknown-word-in-a-wwii-documentary-series/708949/9 "2015-01-07T05:24:16Z")
While “Lumpen” does indeed mean “rags”, it can also be the plural of “Lump”, which means - among other things - “cheapskate”. Then there’s also the rarely-used verb “lumpen”, as in the expression “sich nich lumpen lassen”, meaning “not being stingy”.