Gesichtserker

German

Etymology

Gesicht (“face”) +‎ -s- +‎ Erker (“oriel”). Possibly coined as a linguistic purism to replace Nase (incorrectly perceived to be a loanword from Latin nāsus or one of its Romance descendants) or, more likely, as a satire pointing out the absurdities of linguistic purism. Often misattributed to Philipp von Zesen.[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ɡəˈzɪçt͡sˌʔɛʁkɐ/
  • Hyphenation: Ge‧sichts‧er‧ker
  • Audio(file)

Noun

Gesichtserker m (strong, genitive Gesichtserkers, plural Gesichtserker)

  1. (humorous, rare) nose
    • 1916, Karl Grube, chapter VIII, in Bei deutschen Brüdern im Urwald Brasiliens, Leipzig: Dieterich, page 43:
      So schläft es sich im Urwald ideal, namentlich wenn man den Poncho über das geehrte Riechorgan zieht, damit die infamen Moskitos auf besagten Gesichtserker keine Turnübungen veranstalten können.
      So in the primeval forest sleep is great, namely when one draws the poncho over the esteemed smelling organ, in order for the mosquitos, the infamous, not being able to do their workouts on the conk.

Declension
Declension of Gesichtserker [masculine, strong]
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative ein der Gesichtserker die Gesichtserker
genitive eines des Gesichtserkers der Gesichtserker
dative einem dem Gesichtserker den Gesichtserkern
accusative einen den Gesichtserker die Gesichtserker

References
  1. Joseph Salmons (2012) A History of German, Oxford: OUP, →ISBN, page 282: “[…] it is claimed in many sources (e.g. Schwarz 1967: 99) that Zesen mistook Nase for a loanword and proposed replacing it with Gesichtserker […] However, it appears that Zesen never used the word in his writings and it first appears in print much later […]”

Further reading
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