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Word of the Week: Schnapsidee

Anne-Sophie BrändlinSeptember 26, 2016

Is that the alcohol talking or are you just crazy? This quirky German Word of the Week will help you answer that question.

https://p.dw.com/p/1Ao0H
Young blond man surrounded by empty bottles, Photo: Fotolia/runzelkorn
Image: Fotolia/runzelkorn

[No title]

"Hey, let's go rappelling on the side of that skyscraper!"

Let's face it. Some of the ideas we have when inebriated can be pretty ridiculous - even though they might make complete sense in the moment.

With all the beer produced in Germany, there is of course a word for an idea that sounds like it must have originated from a drunken state - "Schnapsidee."

A Schnapsidee literally means a "booze idea" and is a term commonly used to indicate that an idea sounds crazy, useless, or completely foolish.

However, most of the time Germans use the word even when they know there was no alcohol involved in someone's outlandish idea.

"A pony for Christmas? What a Schnapsidee," mom and dad might say to their seven-year-old.