Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Cowering in Place


I enjoy when someone invokes the German language as a sure source of the right word, as in, “I’m sure the Germans have a word for it.” Sometimes they do, and if they don’t, usually one can be manufactured handily.

Despite my job as a part-time German, I invoked the language today with the same hope when I experienced the fear I suffer once or twice daily: the fear of standing up - whether from throwing something away or picking something up - and bumping my head against an open cabinet door.

(Banging your head against an open cabinet or cupboard door, by the way, is one of the reasons people swear.)

Anyone who has stood up only to smash their head against the edge, or worse, the corner, of a cabinet door knows that this fear serves a protective purpose.

As far as I know there is no German word for this fear. But let’s create Dooferunfallangst, or Aufstehenderkopfstossangst. Actually, German asks too much of us here. Let’s go with Fear of Hitting Your Head against a Cabinet Door upon Resuming an Upright Position.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Although this happens every time I pick
something up floor-level from a hall closet with a
shorter-than-I shelf, it must not have happened
often enough or I should begin to seriously worry
about memory loss because THERE IS NO FEAR.

Was the latest one to do you in a U.S. shelf?

johanna

SarahJane said...

Lucky you! I haven't gotten bumped recently, mostly protected by my very conscious anxiety about it.

Kathleen said...

Oh, I love a word beginning "Doofer..." so I will try to learn to pronounce it in full and carry it around in my brain as a protective cushion.

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