Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 August 22

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August 22

Words for "picky" in German

I read on a German Facebook page that there are quite a few dialectal or colloquial words for the term "picky" in German. Here are some of the ones:

krüsch, verschnuckt, pienzig, verschnegt, schneubisch, vernäscht, käpsch, äffelich, leksch, schnüsch, pingelig, schleckig, g'schlägert, hoaklig, hoigl, haglich, gschleckad, heuglig, schnäkig, schnöggelig, verschnaigt, gnerschig, gnaschig, gnuscherd, mäkelig, verscnuppt, schnäubisch, schnücksch, schnicksch, hoaglig, fimschig, gnäschich, käbsch, glischdig, schleggich, haklich, krütsch, klott, klottisch, schnägisch, gnärschig, strielig, schnoiberd, verschnöppt, gschlegat, kiesätig, schluschisch

Are there really so many different words for "picky" in German? Are they all in use somewhere? And do they mean the same thing? JIP | Talk 12:40, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

I think I've only heard a single one of those: pingelig, which I would consider standard German. The others may well be in local use, there is a lot of dialectal variety in German. Note that some of those words are actually identical or nearly so, albeit spelt differently reflecting variations in pronunciation, gschleckad and gschlegat for instance. --Wrongfilter (talk) 13:00, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Wählerisch would be standard German too, much more so than pingelig (which for me would be more the translation of finicky or fussy. Lectonar (talk) 13:58, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Wählerisch was actually listed there too, but I left it out as I assumed it was the standard grammatical form (seeing as it was the only one I understood). JIP | Talk 14:06, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

• As a native German speaker (Austro Bavarian) I am familiar with:
• wählerisch, Standard German
• pingelig, colloquial
• haklig / haklich / haglich, which I consider to be dialectal
• I have never heard any of the other terms. They may well exist in other parts.

--Cookatoo.ergo.ZooM (talk) 16:50, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Yes, definitely, yes (except "verscnuppt", probably a typo for "verschnuppt") and yes (more or less). Four or five words for "picky" in standard German are listed at leo's [1]. Wiktionary has others like wikt:de:haklich, wikt:de:krüsch, wikt:de:krütsch, wikt:de:schnäkig. The DWDS might be a better source, e.g. DWDS:schnäkig, note the references to 15 synonymous words there and the regional uses. In leo's thread for leo:schnöggelig the OP (German speaker) mentions that he cannot find the standard German word, only the regional word. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 21:37, 22 August 2022 (UTC)

Thinking of possible words for the same term in Finnish, I could first only come up with valikoiva (neutral, meaning pretty much the same as wählerisch) and nirso (derogatory). With a bit more searching, kranttu and ronkeli are dialectal words. JIP | Talk 01:30, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

Here is a map of the regional words for wählerisch beim Essen and here a more detailed map for Rheinland-Pfalz and Saarland (where I live) for wählerisch beim Essen. --Pp.paul.4 (talk) 08:45, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

That's a lovely map. I'm on the schnäubisch-side of the schnäubisch/pienzig border. I understand both, but rarely use them. Usually I'd just say Stell disch net so aa! –Austronesier (talk) 18:36, 23 August 2022 (UTC)

• Just to clarify here, even English has dozens of synonyms and near-synonyms for the word "picky", many of them dialectal. So the OP should not be terribly surprised that German has such a large number as well. --Jayron32 15:00, 23 August 2022 (UTC)