Count on the Germans to have a picturesque term for a pout: Schippchen, that face you make by sticking out your bottom lip, comes from a word that means “little shovel.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “German for “Pout””
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Jake from Cleveland, Ohio.
Hi, Jake. Welcome to the show.
Hello, Jake.
Well, I came across your guys’ podcast a couple months ago, and I thought I’ve got a perfect word that I want to share with you guys that I’d also like to learn a little bit more about for myself.
Okay.
And that word is ship-tion.
Ship-tion.
Would you like to know a little bit about that?
Yes, please.
Yes, ship-tion.
Yes, ship-tion.
It’s from my German grandmother. She would always call when you put your lip out when you’re being sad and you’re protruding your lower lip. She would say, don’t give me that shiption. And so it’s whenever your lower lip is pouting out.
Oh, a term that literally means little shovel.
Oh, see, that’s what my uncle had said.
Right. Yeah.
And in fact, if you Google the word, which is spelled S-C-H-I-P-P-C-H-E-N, you’ll see people making that little shovel with their lip. You know, the little sort of glistening plump lip that you have when you pout.
Oh, yeah.
In my house, we call that shelf lip.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
Shelf lip.
Yeah.
My son is really good at it.
I bet.
I do it occasionally, too, but it doesn’t have the same response.
Well, usually it’s effective, right?
Yeah.
We also do the cat paws. You hold them up in front of your, you know, kind of like the Japanese style.
Oh, like, please, please.
Like, kawaii and the shelf lip. Cock your head like a dog. It’s a little puppy, kitty, and shelf lip all together.
Yeah.
They would also warn that a bird is going to come and poop on it.
Why is the bird aiming for my Schiption?
Oh, right.
Pull that in, right?
It’s too big a surface to be put out like that.
Yeah, that makes sense.
I never heard that, but I might have to borrow that.
Did they say that in German or English?
I’ve heard other people say that a bird is going to poop on it other than just our family, but Schiption was only a thing in our family.
Okay.
Well, yep.
Schippe in German is a shovel. And ship-yen is a little one.
Oh, that’s nice.
Ship-yen.
Yeah, because we always use shen. So, like, my uncle was always Tommy Shen, and my dad was Chrissy Shen. So whenever someone was, you know, oh, they were feeling bad about themselves, it was always, oh, poor Chrissy Shen.
Right.
So it’s a little, it’s a suffix that kind of adds cuteness to the name, right?
Yeah.
That’s right.
I guess like a Y at the end, like whenever we say, you know, oh, a little Jakey and those kind of things.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah.
That’s cool.
Well, it looks like Martha was able to help you, Jake.
Yeah, that was pretty good.
Thank you very much for that.
Okay.
Sure, thanks for giving us a call.
Take care now.
Yeah, you’re welcome.
Have a great day.
Okay.
Bye-bye, Jake.
Bye-bye.
Do you have a linguistic heirloom in your family? Give us a call. We’ll help you figure it out. 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.
