Birte Priebe
Congrestolk     -     Konferenzdolmetscherin     -     Conference Interpreter
  • Nederlands
  • Deutsch
  • English
  • Contact/Kontakt
  • Blog

Word of the Week: CUGCVANG - ЦУГЦВАНГ

27/1/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
This week's term is an interesting one. The German Zugzwang is originally a chess term. In this context, it describes a situation in which a player is obliged to make a move, but where any move will put him or her at a disadvantage. This is the way zugzwang is used in English. In Russian, цугцванг ("tsugtsvang") was originally used for chess only, too. Nowadays, however, it can also be used to describe hopeless real-life situations. In modern German, the term has largely lost the connotation of something unpleasant waiting ahead no matter what you do. It still means that one is obliged to do something (urgently), though, so the notion of compulsion is still there.

By the way, the text below today's image reads "Zugzwang occurs more often in real life than in chess." I think I agree.

The image is from www.prozaru.com.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    About

    This is a blog about the traces German (my mother tongue) has left in other languages. Contributions from your language(s) are more than welcome! Mail me at b.priebe@aiic.net.
    If you want to know more about me, feel free to browse the other pages of this site.

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Archives

    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013

    Categories

    All
    African
    Bulgarian
    Croatian
    Czech
    Danish
    Dutch
    English
    Estonian
    Finnish
    French
    Hungarian
    Italian
    Japanese
    Latvian
    Lithuanian
    Norwegian
    Polish
    Romanian
    Russian
    Slovenian
    Spanish
    Swedish
    Turkish

    RSS Feed

© Birte Priebe