How once nemesi German enriches the British language! IV

Apr 1, 2010
This week's theme
Words borrowed from German

This week's words
gotterdammerung
realpolitik
zeitgeist
weltanschauung

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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

weltanschauung

PRONUNCIATION:
(VELT-ahn-shou-oong)

MEANING:
noun: World view; philosophy of life; a framework through which to interpret the world.

ETYMOLOGY:
From German Weltanschauung (world view), from Welt (world) + Anschauung (perception).

NOTES:
When we bring in a word from another language, sometimes we borrow it and at other times make a loan translation. The word weltanschauung appears so useful that English has borrowed the original form and also made a loan translation: world view.

USAGE:
"Gwyneth Paltrow summed up her weltanschauung thus: 'My life is good because I am not passive about it.'"
Richard Dorment; Gwyneth Paltrow Feels Good -- And So Can You; Esquire (New York); Sep 16, 2009.

Explore "weltanschauung" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)