TagDoppelgänger

Weltschmerz

A North Carolina listener is fond of the German loanword Weltschmerz, literally “world pain,” a compound word made up of Welt, cognate with English world and Schmerz, cognate with smart as in That smarts! Coined by a 19th-century German author who...

Googleganger

Have you ever googled your own name and found someone else who has the very same moniker? There’s a word for that: Googleganger, a play on the word doppelganger, from German words that literally mean “double goer.” This is part of a complete episode...

Meet Yourself Coming Back

You’re going to “meet yourself coming back.” A New York City woman who’s always used this expression is surprised when a friend is puzzled by it. Is it really that unusual? Grant assures her that it’s been around for quite a while. This is part of a...

Googleganger

Googleganger  n.— Note: From the German word “doppelgänger,” meaning a look-alike or a double of a person. «It was an honest mistake: Eve’s name kept showing up on X-rated sites when her mother Googled it to keep tabs on her daughter. But that Eve...