Verschlucken and Schlucken

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, my name is Jackie, and I’m calling from Wausau, Wisconsin.

Hi, Jackie. Welcome to the program. What’s up?

Yeah, so I have a word that’s kind of been used in my family ever since I was a little kid.

My grandmother always used to say this word, and the word is for schluck.

And you would say that when you like swallow water, and it kind of like goes down the wrong tube.

My mom’s side of the family are German and Polish, and I kind of looked this up a little bit,

And I think my cousin would always say that it means the literal German translation is like to choke or to choke on oneself.

But just kind of wanted to get your thoughts on that.

Oh, goodness.

Give us that word again.

For schluck.

For schluck.

How would you spell that if you could?

Maybe F-U-R-S-C-H-L-U-K for schluck.

All right.

All right.

Close, Martha, right?

Close. Yeah, it would start with a V because the German word schluchen means to swallow.

Ver in this V-E-R is sort of an intensifier, and it also suggests that something’s going wrong.

So you’re swallowing and something’s going wrong.

Like you said, you know, it’s going down your Sunday pipe or it’s going down the wrong pipe.

And it’s sort of onomatopoetic, isn’t it? Schluchen?

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So it fits perfectly.

I mean, it comes directly from German.

So schlucken means to swallow and fer means an unintended result.

So together, fer schlucken means to choke.

Wow.

Is that right, Martha?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That’s right.

And it’s just, I think it’s the perfect word for that.

I think we should adopt it officially into English because, you know.

I think we should too.

I have an eight-year-old daughter and she even uses it now.

Or she’ll hear me do it.

Oh, yeah?

Say, Mom, did you first look?

Yeah.

It’s so funny.

You will occasionally hear that in parts of the United States where Pennsylvania German is still heard.

Of course, there’s the German layer there.

And sometimes you’ll hear Siegverschlucken, which is a little more elaborate.

And it basically means, I misswallowed, or I swallowed myself.

And you will hear sometimes in English, in parts of the Great Plains where people have German heritage,

They’ll say in English, I swallowed myself.

And it’s a direct borrowing from the German, Siegferschmuchen, meaning I choked, I swallowed myself.

Things went down the wrong pipe.

So, Jackie, you were on the right track, even if the water wasn’t.

Okay, fantastic.

I figured as much.

It’s the water’s fault.

All right.

All right, don’t swallow yourself, Jackie.

Yeah, be careful out there.

Bye-bye.

I’ll try not to.

Thank you, guys.

All right, take care now.

Okay, bye-bye.

Okay, bye-bye.

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