fisselig

Hello and welcome to Word of the Week! I’m your host, Liz. This podcast is dedicated to words and phrases that are untranslatable into English. Let’s discover the nuance of the world’s languages, shall we?

This week’s word is fisselig. A German word meaning ‘flustered to the point of incompetence’. Have you ever been nagged so incessantly, or watched so intently by a spouse or manager that your performance grew sloppier as you went along? I’m sure we all type less accurately as soon as someone is looking over your shoulder, right? Just me? 

In English, you might say you were ‘flustered’ or ‘jittery’. But these words don’t put any blame on the unwanted supervisor hovering behind you. The German fisselig conveys a temporary state of inexactitude and sloppiness that is elicited by another person’s nagging. It’s exactly the right answer word when you’re asked “What the heck is wrong with you today?”

Everyone has been in a classroom in which the teacher managed to intimidate students into speechlessness. Or a romantic partner trying to teach you how to drive a manual-drive car will exhibit a streak of this trait. You can call these not-so-helpful advisers ‘fisseligers’. Or perhaps when your ability to cope when someone has driven you over the edge, you can remark “I’m fisseliged.” 

Hopefully your tormentor will be stunned into silence or at the least puzzled by such a word. They may even ask “What is that supposed to mean?” And you need not answer that question. But you might want to teach them that word, because you’ll inevitably become their tormentor when they load the dishwasher incorrectly and you are the one to torment them by hovering or nagging. 

Here’s to this week… May you all endeavor to adopt this Word of the Week and see the world a little bit differently. I’ll be back next week with a new word. Thank you for listening!