piekfein

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

German

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Low German püükfien, tautological compound of püük + fien, both roughly “excellent, fine, clean, honest”.

The former is a borrowing from Dutch puik, from Middle Dutch puuc, from Old Dutch *puiken, from Proto-West Germanic *pūka, *pūga, from Pre-Germanic *pūkk, of uncertain origin, possibly Proto-Indo-European *buk-, *bu-, *beu- (to blow, swell), assuming an original sense of "bag made from skin."[1][2] The latter is from Old French fin, cognate with German fein, English fine.

Pronunciation

[edit]
  • IPA(key): /ˈpiːkˈfaɪ̯n/
  • Audio:(file)

Adjective

[edit]

piekfein (strong nominative masculine singular piekfeiner, not comparable)

  1. (informal, often mildly derogatory, otherwise dated) posh; fancy
    Hau! Du siehst ja piekfein aus!
    Wow! You’re looking posh! (dated)
    Die haben uns da in ein piekfeines Restaurant eingeladen.
    They invited us to a mighty fancy restaurant. (somewhat impressed, but also dismissive)

Declension

[edit]
[edit]

Descendants

[edit]
  • Dutch: piekfijn

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013) “puka”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 400
  2. ^ Kroonen, G. (2009). Consonant and Vowel Gradation in the Proto-Germanic n-Stems. PhD dissertation, University of Leiden, p. 126-127