Tölpel

German

Etymology

From a merger of dialectal tolp (with variants; of unknown, probably onomatopoetic, origin) and Middle High German dörpel, itself dissimilated from dörper, from Middle Low German dorper (“villager”), from dorp (“village”). Both of these words meant “rude, gruff person”, and dörper/dörpel particularly “uncultured, unrefined person”. The name of the bird is due to its apparently clumsy movements.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈtœlpəl/, [ˈtœlpəl], [ˈtœlpl̩]
  • Audio(file)

Noun

Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)

  1. someone who acts in a clumsy or awkward way (physically or socially)
  2. idiot, fool, dolt
  3. gannet (a sea bird)

Declension

Lua error in Module:utilities at line 142: attempt to perform arithmetic on local 'h' (a nil value)

Hyponyms

Derived terms

Further reading
  • “Tölpel” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
  • “Tölpel” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
  • “Tölpel” in Duden online
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.