Drachenfutter

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 Drachenfutter. A German word meaning ‘peace offering for wives from guilty husbands’. It’s an interesting word in many ways. It literally means ‘dragon fodder’, which means that a guilty husband knows that an angry wife can be as deadly as a dragon. But it also references the idea that dragons can be placated by gifts and trinkets. This is an old fairy tale idea. Think of Smaug and his horde of gold. 

But what exactly are husbands feeling guilty for? I’ll disappoint you now - it’s not for a big indiscretion like having an affair. No, it’s for staying out late while playing darts with the boys at the dive bar. And what gifts or trinkets qualify as Drachenfutter? Flowers perhaps, or chocolates, or even her favorite variety of wine. At one point in German culture, husbands had their Drachenfutter already purchased when they would show up at the bar or cafe on a Saturday afternoon.

Of course, this was a practice when women stayed at home. Nowadays, the female version of Drachenfutter might be more appropriate. The word has extended to mean all manner of gift giving due to the feeling of guilt. Maybe the kids giving Mom or Dad a homemade gift on their birthday is a way of offering Drachenfutter for staying up late playing video games. Maybe students giving apples to the teacher is because of the acting out that happened the week before.

So, if you catch someone feeding you some Drachenfutter, and you’re feeling particularly mischievous, you can let them know… there’s a word for that!

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!