German word of the day: Das Hüftgold

Despite sounding golden, Hüftgold is not necessarily a good thing…

Published: Thu 6 Dec 2018 08:36 CEST
German word of the day: Das Hüftgold
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Hüftgold is a compound noun made up of Hüft meaning ‘hip’ and gold meaning ‘gold’, so its literal meaning is ‘hip-gold’.

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The actual meaning of the word is slightly harder to guess as Hüftgold, it turns out, describes something slightly less glamorous, namely the extra fat people put on around their hips.

The word made it into the Duden German dictionary for the first time in 2009 and was also included in a book published in 2011 to honour Duden's founder. 

The book gathered a selection of new words which had entered the German language over the previous decade.

Hüftgold can also be used to describe food which is particularly calorie rich. It is sometimes also colloquially known as Hüftspeck, or hip bacon. 

SEE ALSO: 9 words that perfectly sum up being in your 30s

Examples:

Sie nahm sich vor mehr Sport zu treiben, denn die Weihnachtsente war reines Hüftgold.

She decided to play more sports because the Christmas duck went straight to her hips.

Die Ehe scheint bei Männern übrigens erst recht das Hüftgold wachsen zu lassen

It seems that with marriage men are more likely to put on weight around their hips.

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This article was produced independently with support from Lingoda.

 

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