I am not looking for the translation of the word middleman as it frequently appears in English (in the economic sense), but rather something along the lines of “one who represents the middle stage of a (spiritual / ideological) transformation.” I’ve tried AltaVista but given my lack of knowledge of German I can’t account for all the different shades of meaning that AV’s suggestions could have.
Could you could define your “spiritual middleman” in English?
Do you mean an acolyte?
No, not an intermediary between God and the common man.
I’m writing an essay that includes a discussion of Nietzsche’s concepts of the untermensch and ubermensch. I need a term that denotes someone in between.
Nur Mensch!
Or probably “Zwischenmensch”
According to AV, this translates to “only humans” (or, I suppose, “mere humans”). I’m not sure if I can use this, although I realize that since Nietzsche considered the “regular” people untermenschen such a term may be difficult to find.
On the other hand, if this means something like the pure, unadorned human, it could be useful.
That seems to be closer to it. Can you elaborate on the way it’s used?
Literally, it would be “Mittelmensch”.
“Zwischenmensch” (Between Man) lends itself to the context of Ubermensch and Untermensch better and might be the more accurate moniker.
probably some googolplexisyllabic German word, with “geist” in there somewhere.
Really there is no such thing as a “Zwischenmensch” in German, I made it up. It is a compound, perfectly legitimate.
So I can use it in a title and as a defined term (like ubermensch)?
Thanks for all the help BTW.
However, outside the context of Unter und Uber mensch, “Zwischenmensch” could mean somebody in a halfway stage between being a human and something else. For example, sort of like a partially transformed werewolf…
That seems like the best fit then…
I wouldn’t use it just yet, I might wait for a more nuanced idea from a native speaker. This is really quite a difficult concept below the surface. This is the best and shortest I’ve got and within my limited knowledge of Nietzsche…you could also come up with your own adjective/s+Mensch and construct a compound that might capture this in a better way. Imagine you can use any combination of adverbs, adjectives, and nouns to make one highly descriptive stand alone noun.
I will, I have a few days left.
Are there any rules to stringing them together (i.e., word order; adverbs before verbs, adjectives before nouns)? Do certain combinations color the meaning of the whole or do the definitions of words remain unchanged when they are placed in an amalgam? Sorry if this going too deeply into it but I want to know if I can just plug stuff into AV, get individual translations, then piece them together.
The rules for building compound nouns in German are not set in stone and pretty intuitive. Two basic rules are that the gender of the compound noun is determined by the gender of the last noun in the sentence, and sometimes the constituent nouns are linked with an -e. -en, -s, or -es (but not always).
for example,
Geburt (birth)+ Tag (day)
becomes,
Geburtstag (birthday)
Here’s a humorous link about German compound nouns.
Here’s something a bit more academic and in-depth.
I came up with a couple of alternatives for “Zwischenmensch” using Latin and Greek suffixes that might convey your intention better. How about…
“Transmensch”
or
“Metamensch”
?
My mistake, those are prefixes not suffixes.
Ah, I see.
Thanks again.
Durchschnitlichermensch.
(your average schmuck)