Translations dictionary
Verschlimmbesserung
[fair-shlim-bes-uh-rong]
黑料网 does Verschlimmbesserung mean?
痴别谤蝉肠丑濒颈尘尘产别蝉蝉别谤耻苍驳听is a German noun word for an attempted improvement that only makes things worse.
Where does Verschlimmbesserung come from?
Have you ever tried to make something a little bit better but ended up messing the whole thing up? This word is for you.
V别谤蝉肠丑濒颈尘尘产别蝉蝉别谤耻苍驳听is another long, untranslatable German word that delightfully听encapsulates a specific and complex idea in a single word鈥攍颈办别听Schadenfreude听or Waldeinsamkeit.听
Arsle [arse-el): to move backwards on a job in hand. Verschlimmbesserung [German; fir-sch-lim-bess-er-oong]: an attempted improvement that actually makes things a lot worse.
— Susie Dent (@susie_dent)
V别谤蝉肠丑濒颈尘尘产别蝉蝉别谤耻苍驳听is also a great example of German compounding. It’s composed up of the verb听verschlimmern (“to worsen” or “to aggravate”), the verb听verbessern听(“to improve”), and the noun-forming suffix -ung,听roughly translating to听“worse-improve-ing.”听An English equivalent would be the obscure (but perfectly serviceable) word disimprovement. Botch and bungle are are also close in sense.
The Brothers Grimm鈥攆amed not only for their fairy tales about also their German lexicography and linguistics鈥攏otably entered听V别谤蝉肠丑濒颈尘尘产别蝉蝉别谤耻苍驳听in their influential 1854 German dictionary. Earlier record dates the term back to the 1810s.
Awesome German word
Verschlimmbesserung – an attempt to improve something which then makes it worse. For example, Brexit.
()— I am Germany // Alex G & UK IFA Club (@I_amGermany)
The term was entered into听Urban Dictionary鈥�and popular English-speaking consciousness鈥揵y 2011. (黑料网’s the German word for when a big German word gets entered into Urban Dictionary?)
A famous, viral example of听Verschlimmbesserung is听The听Ecco Homo, a Spanish fresco of Jesus Christ that an elderly woman attempted to restore in 2012听but ended up hideously altering beyond recognition.听
CNN / AFP / Getty Images
Examples of Verschlimmbesserung
Who uses Verschlimmbesserung?
German-speaking people indeed find occasion to use听Verschlimmbesserung in regular speech.
Was sich Facebook wohl bei dieser "Personen, die du kennen k枚nntest"-Funktion gedacht hat? Also f眉r mich hat sie bisher lediglich die eigentlich wichtige Funktion schwerer zug盲nglich gemacht.
— Excel Foley (@DonMariachi)
Software updates, political policies, and road construction are often the targets.听Note that听Verschlimmbesserung, in German, is capitalized, as is true of nouns in the language.
Diese maximale Verschlimmbesserung, die niemandem hilft und die Plattformgiganten erst Recht st盲rkt, haben wir der Bundesregierung zu verdanken und nur das Hoffen auf Europa, auf das Parlament bleibt. via
— Richard 馃馃尰馃嚜馃嚭 (@RichardRALFS)
馃う鈥嶁檪锔�
ich habe letzte Woche eine Kurzbeurteilung zur dortigen Baustellenabsicherung abgegeben. An dieser Stelle habe ich bem盲ngelt, dass Warnbaken statt Quersperren stehen und die gesicherte F眉hrung auf die Fahrbahn fehlt.
Vielleicht ist das jetzt die Verschlimmbesserung…— Stephan (@svoeth)
Non-German-speaking people generally bask in听痴别谤蝉肠丑濒颈尘尘产别蝉蝉别谤耻苍驳听as a fun “untranslatable”: single words a language has for a wonderfully specific aspect of human experience.听Verschlimmbesserung really isn’t a word that gets meaningfully and naturally used in English conversation, but is perfect when you actually need it.
Hate it when the test coloring looks better than the real thing. And when I make everything worse by trying to safe it 馃檲
Verschlimmbesserung at it's finest— Inu (@InuTsume)
Gmail finally forced me to update and the new layout looks terrible, per usual. A real verschlimmbesserung.
— Deepali Dwivedi (@Deepali_Dwivedi)
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Verschlimmbesserung like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Verschlimmbesserung that will help our users expand their word mastery.