German Words for Gchat-related Psychoemotional States

by Samuel Jacob Roudman and Carrie Hill Wilner

Speaking of Gchat

Verkendokumentaugenstich: The momentary pinch of inadequacy and remorse felt when you glance away from a chat and spot the work you are supposed to be doing, before returning to ask your friend “fix my liiife? fix it?”

Dunksturrfenvlecht: The desire (conscious or unconscious) to leave, and concomitant pleasure derived from leaving, your chat window “available” after you’ve gone to bed in order to elicit other people’s drunk messages and wake up feeling like you have a lot of friends.

Dopplepastenschande. When you make a successful joke in one chat window and paste it in another only to realize you pasted the name of the first person you were talking to along with your joke, so your petty joke-pride is evident to all.

Zuppenstaff: Gchat material describing to a friend someone you have spotted in a public space and hate instantly.

Zuppenstaff-durfeinvlicht: The knowledge that you are being zuppenstaffed.

Zuppenstaff-durfeinvlicht-mecht-RomCom: Two people are zuppenstaffing each other at the same time, then they fall in love. (Tagline: Her status was busy, but her heart was available.)

Chattenskumpf: The misunderstanding that develops between two chatters due to a failure of inflection or tone often leading to confusion about what “really” happened.

Samuel Jacob Roudman is offline. Carrie Hill Wilner is busy. You may be interrupting.