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As a German, I might not have thought of that but would absolutely use it to translate Verschlimmbesserung. Does it sound "normal" enough to native English spe

by eqvinox 19d ago

As a German, I might not have thought of that but would absolutely use it to translate Verschlimmbesserung. Does it sound "normal" enough to native English speakers?

arjan_sch 19d ago
I'm Dutch, sounds pretty good to me
inanutshellus 19d ago
It's definitely a normal-sounding, memorable word for us native English speakers. Meanwhile I won't be able to remember that German word longer than it takes me to close this tab. Vershumthingsomething.
groestl 19d ago
Thumbs up, let's settle on that translation
clbrmbr 19d ago
It's totally plausible portmanteau. I get the feeling thought that it sounds more marked in English than in German where these kind of mashups are formed more freely.
ThrowawayR2 19d ago
The sibling post's "disimprovement" sounds more natural and has parallel form with pre-existing broadly accepted English words like "disincentive" and "disinfect".
- eqvinox 19d ago
  Not sure if that's just me, but "disimprovement" sounds like *removing* an improvement that was previously there…
  - ThrowawayR2 17d ago
    An improvement isn't all or nothing, it can be incremental. The dis- prefix only indicates that the increment is negative in this case.
pndy 19d ago
I'm darn sure that in time the original German pronounciation would be lost and you'd hear something comparable to reading Straße as "Strabe". Probably it would become "verskimbeserong".
amiga386 18d ago
It doesn't sound normal. "worse-" doesn't fit as a replacement for the "im-" prefix, because the "se" ending doesn't flow well into the plosive "prov". "disimprove" works much better. The similar word "unimproved" implies you did nothing to make it better, "disimproved" implies you actively made it worse. But this is still just effectively adding "not" to the word. If you must join two words that are the antonyms of each other (like verbessern and verschlimmern), the closest match I can think of is the vulgar pun "fuxed", a blend of "fixed" (repaired) and "fucked" (broke). https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fuxed https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fuxed

by eqvinox 19d ago

As a German, I might not have thought of that but would absolutely use it to translate Verschlimmbesserung. Does it sound "normal" enough to native English speakers?

arjan_sch 19d ago

I'm Dutch, sounds pretty good to me

inanutshellus 19d ago

It's definitely a normal-sounding, memorable word for us native English speakers. Meanwhile I won't be able to remember that German word longer than it takes me to close this tab. Vershumthingsomething.

groestl 19d ago

Thumbs up, let's settle on that translation

clbrmbr 19d ago

It's totally plausible portmanteau. I get the feeling thought that it sounds more marked in English than in German where these kind of mashups are formed more freely.

ThrowawayR2 19d ago

The sibling post's "disimprovement" sounds more natural and has parallel form with pre-existing broadly accepted English words like "disincentive" and "disinfect".

eqvinox 19d ago
Not sure if that's just me, but "disimprovement" sounds like *removing* an improvement that was previously there…
- ThrowawayR2 17d ago
  An improvement isn't all or nothing, it can be incremental. The dis- prefix only indicates that the increment is negative in this case.

pndy 19d ago

I'm darn sure that in time the original German pronounciation would be lost and you'd hear something comparable to reading Straße as "Strabe". Probably it would become "verskimbeserong".

amiga386 18d ago

It doesn't sound normal. "worse-" doesn't fit as a replacement for the "im-" prefix, because the "se" ending doesn't flow well into the plosive "prov". "disimprove" works much better. The similar word "unimproved" implies you did nothing to make it better, "disimproved" implies you actively made it worse. But this is still just effectively adding "not" to the word. If you must join two words that are the antonyms of each other (like verbessern and verschlimmern), the closest match I can think of is the vulgar pun "fuxed", a blend of "fixed" (repaired) and "fucked" (broke). https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fuxed https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fuxed