# What are German dictionaries like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 13, 2017, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119 "2017-03-13T21:55:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119/21 "2017-03-15T15:36:57Z")
Oh, and before someone comes in to say that _electrical conductivity_, for example, is not a compound noun, but rather a an adjective and a noun in sequence, I’ll just say it now: You’re not seeing the forest for the trees, and getting too caught up in high school English parts of speech lessons. Functionally, it is, in fact a compound noun–it’s an example of one of the most productive ways in which English generates compound nouns. _Electricalconductivity_ – big long word, just like they do in German. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119/22 "2017-03-15T15:41:05Z")
Good points, guizot. ---
**Author:** ![Dana\_Scully](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5daacb/32.png) [@Dana\_Scully](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dana_Scully)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119/23 "2017-03-15T19:55:43Z")
> [@K364](#): > > I understand German uses “closed” (no spaces between words) compound words. > > An example I found is “Spionagesatellit” which is spy satellite. I suspect that there is also communication satellite and weather satellite and maybe several more. > > A dictionary listing all these compound words is actually listing phrases and sentences. It would be 20 times larger than an English dictionary. > > So, how do they actually do it? Just like English, only in German 😃 ---
**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 16, 2017, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119/24 "2017-03-16T08:50:06Z")
FWIW, [dict.leo.org](http://dict.leo.org) is a great website for translations between German and several other languages. They have a free mobile app too. Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2017, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119/25 "2017-03-17T08:52:59Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > Expanding on **constanze** ’s example entry from the _Duden_: > > Here’s [a photograph of page 247](http://imgur.com/xLfjlt3) of the 21th, 1996 volume edition of _Duden_, vol. 1 (we did not buy an analog dictionary after 1996…) > > Under the _Elefant_ (elephant) head you’ll see that _Elefantenbulle_ and _Elefantenkuh_ (male and female elephants) have no definition, but the metathorical usages _Elefantenhochzeit_, _Elefantenrennen_, and _Elefantenrunde_ have (and the nonobvious medical condition _Elefantiasis_ also has) this is a good Illustration of Giles post Nr. 2 ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2017, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119/26 "2017-03-17T08:59:58Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > This takes me back 60 years when I took German in college. These compounds drove me absolutely nuts. My dictionary (Cassels) listed some compounds, but certainly not all and not all the unlisted ones could be guessed from the elements. Did you have a Problem with seperating the compounds - figuring out that spionagesatellit is from Spionage + Satellit or Elefantenkuh from Elefant + en + kuh; or was it just not listed? Because the second Problem was the same Problem I had in my English class: I couldn’t (in pre-Internet days) afford the Encyclopedia Britannia to look up English words (around grade 9 we were encouraged to use English-English dictionaries; the bilingual ones like Langenscheidt were forbidden, mostly because common words have so many meanings depending on context that dumb pupils looking at a list of 30 meanings and picking the first one get things very wrong), and the one-volume dictionaries did not list the words I was reading in English books, let alone explain context. (That’s why I have Little tolerance for People complaining today about language practice in the time of Internet. There’s Wikipedia and Google! And urban dictionary … And if that doesn’t help, you ask People for words in Special context.) > [@](#): > > But the problem isn’t really that they are compounds. I imagine all languages have word combinations, whether they are compressed into one word or not, whose meaning is not guessable from their elements. The example of “brown study” mentioned above is a superb example. That means to be in a funk, a low mood, right? > [@](#): > > Here is another kind of example. It is literally true of a building on the McGill campus: The BROWN building is a brown BUILDING. There isn’t even a proper way of writing it, but stress the capitalized words. What’s a Brown building? A brownstone, I’ve often read as term in AE, but Brown building? Does it refer to a building named after a Person called Brown, not a building that is coloured Brown? ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2017, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119/27 "2017-03-17T10:41:43Z")
> [@constanze](#): > > That means to be in a funk, a low mood, right? To be in a “brown study” means to be absorbed in thought. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-german-dictionaries-like/782119.md?page=1)