Gay Dictionary German
How to say gay in German
Below are the words that compose our German Gay Dictionary that we will expand in new editions. But first, some information about aspects of this dictionary that we think are relevant.
At first, the search for words in the German language to name fags was an enigma. We only found the word Schwul and its derivatives and Warmer Bruder. We asked our German friends and we always got the same answer, there were no more words. How could this be? Over time, and continuing with the search, we find Dr. Jody Skinner’s work “Bezeichnungen für das Homosexuelle im Deutschen”, Die Blau Eule (1999) (Denominations for Homosexual in German), and with the help of Rocío Laguía, Mosca of the translations in Germany, Jody was so kind to give us the two volumes of his work that is our main source for the realization of this dictionary.
Rocío and María Cano helped us with the first translations and interpretations and thus we found a lot of derogative words and expressions, but also some that used up a great sense of humor, even beauty, because they arose in the LGBT community itself, who survived in the slums and marginal environments and who had the need to speak in code.
One of the most outstanding topics in this German Gay Dictionary is that of warmth with the word warm, and it does so for two reasons, the first, for a large number of words and expressions it has generated, and the second, because its relationship with effeminate men and with those who fucked with other men, goes back to the Middle Ages or perhaps much further back in time. The construct of masculinity and femininity as watertight and excluding categories, cold the man and hot the woman, places the warmth and lukewarmness aside from the normal and correct and make them something detestable. Simple ideas that were probably among the first that the patriarchy produced.
In this dictionary you will find current, old words, terms from the Rotwelsch jargon and expressions of the LGBT community. If you speak German language and you want to help us with one word, please contact us, we will send you the information to work and if you want, we will cite you as a source and you will be united to that word forever.
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Abfetzer
Wanker.
+Abkauer
Sucker.
+Abweichung
Deflected. It originated in the 19th century in the wake of the medical debate that considers homosexuality as a disease.
Related Konträr, Pervers, Investiert
2Aftokrator
Who loves from behind. Term used in the 18th century to refer to Frederick the Great, known for his liking for anal sex.
+Andersrum
Current slang, means the opposite, different.
+Araber
In Germany these terms are used to say faggot. It is customary in many countries say that homosexual behavior always comes from outside. Homophobia and xenophobia together.
Related Levantiner, Sidonier
+Arg
Now means bad, but in the past also meant cowardly, lazy, unmanly, faggot.
+Arschficker
Ass fucker.
+Arschgefickten
Who gives his ass.
+Aufspießer
+Bananenpeller
Banana peeler.
+Betätigt
Operated. Referring to transsexuality.
+Billiardspieler
Billiard player.
+Bougre
Means bugger and comes from the Bulgarian gentilic. Began to be used in the Middle Ages.
Variations: Bus, Buserant, Buserin, Puseron
SeeBujarrón
+Bratengabel
Literaly means roast fork, in slang is ass fucker.
+Darmling
Darm means intestine, and refers to anal sex.
+Eierschlürfer
Balls licker.
+Evasöhne
The literal translation of the German expression Evasöhne into the English language would be the son of Eve, just as Adamstochter would be translated as Adam’s daughter. With this pejorative and antiquated idiom it was wanted to emphasize the feminity of the gay people relating them with the first woman, according to the Bible Eve, in the same way that with Adamstochter the masculinity of lesbians was remarked relating them with the first man, Adam, in a time in which the only referent was the camp people, people with a gender expression that did not correspond to their sex and that worked, not without error, as a predictor of sexual orientation. This slang, therefore, was an instrument of the so-called Gender Vigilance.
+Gurkenfresser
+Handballer
Handball player, who plays with the balls (testicles) with his hands.
1Hintermann
Butt man.
+Homofürst
Gaylord.
+Homosexuelle
The translation into the English language of the word Homosexuelle is homosexual, a term coined by Karl Maria Benkert, the precursor of the fight for gay rights, which was then used in medicine to name a false disease.
See: What is homosexual? Post in our blog.
+Investiert
The translation into the English language of the word Investiert is invested. Originated in the 19th century due to the medical debate that considers homosexuality as a disease.
Related: Abweichung, Konträr, Pervers.
+Ketzer
Heretic. Essentially those who were not Christians were heretics, and these, as animist tribes that existed in the current territory of Bulgaria, they attributed all sorts of vices and sins, hence this is the origin of the word bugger and the relation between heresy and homosexual behavior .
+Kistenräumer
Picker boxes. Maybe because bending and put the ass in pomp.
+Konträr
The translation into the English language of the word Konträr is contrary, opposite. This slang was originated in the 19th century due to the medical debate that considers homosexuality as a disease.
Related Abweichung, Pervers, Investiert.
+Leckermaul
The first meaning of Leckermaul is a greedy person, however, the first part of the word Leck- is related to the cunnilingus or anilingus (rim job), so this expression can be used as a slang for a homosexual person, both for gays and lesbians.
+Päderast
Pederast.
+Pervers
The translation into the English language of the word Pervers is perverted. This expression has its origin in the 19th century as a result of the medical debate in which homosexuality is considered as a disease.
Related Abweichung, Investiert, Konträr.
+Rosettenkrauler
The words Rose and Rosetten are slang words for the anus, so Rosettenkrauler has the meaning of the one that deals with his partner’s anus in sex, for this reason, it is used as slang for the homosexual man that we could translate into the English language as eyelets scratcher.
+Schwanzjäger
Cocks hunter.
+Schwanzlutscher
Cocksucker.
+Schwanzpolierer
Cocks polisher.
+Schwuchtel
Femenine of faggot.
+Schwul
Gay (adjetive).
+Schwuler
Gay (noun)
+Schwuppe
Schwul variation.
+Sodomit
Sodomite, biblical term used in the Middle Ages.
See I Survived Sodom y I Love Sodom from Funny and Protest collections.
See Palabra de dios God’s word”. Post in our blog in Spanish.
+Spinatstecher
In the German language, when are used expressions whose first element is Spinat- in the context of homosexual men and male homosexuality, is metaphorically speaking of the feces, since Spinat translated into the English language is spinach, the vegetable, and all these expressions are referring to anal sexual activity. Thus, Spinatforscher or “spinach researcher” means gay or faggot according to the context, and Spinatstich or “penetration in spinach” is a slang word for anal intercourse. The literal translation of Spinatstecher would be a skewer or spinach knife, and we could translate it into English as faggot.
It is said that the term Spinatstecher originates in the Rotwelsch jargon at the beginning of the 19th century and refers to the top homosexual man in anal intercourse. The Spinatstecher is also documented in several dialects, such as the one talked in Frankfurt, in which Spinatstecher in addition to homosexual man is also used to refer to the own penis. As a curiosity, in an unpleasant allusion to the homosexuality of the Berlin sexologist, Ludwig Thoma, he called it “Magnus Spinatfeld“, that is, a large field of shit.
+Tucke
Tucke is a contemptuous expression derived from Tunte.
+Tunte
Tunte is a derogatory expression and feminine gender used to refer to effeminate homosexual men.
+Urning
Urning is a German term rarely used today, but it is the predecessor of the term homosexual, in this case referring to men. Coined in 1862 by activist and writer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, he defined Urning as “the soul of a woman in a men’s body,” in the same way that the analogous term for men was Uranierin, whose definition was “the soul of a man in a woman’s body”. It may seem silly, but it must be taken into account that, at that time, homosexuality did not exist, but just homosexual behavior that first was a sin and then a crime. These terms represented a paradigm shift since they anticipated the identity aspect of homosexuality, and from afar, the overcoming of the binary sexual model.Uranismus (uranism) was the term Ulrich used to refer to what only a few years later (1869), Karl Maria Kertbeny coined as homosexuality. Ulrichs’ idea was so successful that we find it in many other languages.
The relationship between being, come from or living on the planet Uranus, and homosexuality, arises in Plato’s work, Symposium, in which he relates it to men’s homosexual behavior; a story of gods…
Variations: Uranier, Uranist, Uri, Urnist, Urnisch (adjetiv).
+Warm
The word Warm can be translated into English as warm, affectionate, heated, friendly, etc. and at least since the 18th century is a slang that has given rise to a large number of expressions to refer to homosexuality and homosexual people, especially men. Although the written references date from that century it is not ruled out that their origin is much earlier.
Since the end of the 18th to the present there have been several attempts to explain the origin of this slang that we discard. The most curious of these are the conclusions of one of the forerunners of LGBT rights, the sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who said that the uranists (that’s what those pioneers called us) had a body temperature higher than the rest of people. Another explanation found is in the fact that homosexual men get horny with those of their same sex, and finally, the one that relates the heat with the dangerousness that has always been attributed to homosexuals.
In our opinion there are two possible origins that are related. The first is explained by the meaning of warm, which would be an intermediate temperature between cold and hot, and the secular dichotomous vision of sexuality and gender. In this sense, the man was considered rough, hard and cold and the woman soft, weak and hot. The man who had sex with other men, therefore, was neither cold nor hot, he was a tepid man in his worst sense. The other explanation, related to the previous one, has to do with the patriarchal identification, with the attribution of supposedly feminine characteristics to homosexual men, such as the warmth in the voice, the softness of the gestures and the weakness in general. A man too warm, too affectionate with other men can be considered half a man. This explanation is reinforced by two derogatory expressions of classical Greece and Rome used against men who behaved as women with other men, the Greek word “malakós” and the Roman expression “homo mollis” literally meant mild man. This simple idea of man as a woman and a concept as basic as warmth can place the origin of the word warm as slang for homosexuality far back in time.
We also have to comment on the possible relationship between the slang words warm and schwul. If warm means heated, schwül (with umlauts in u) means suffocating, which is much hotter and more intense in all its meanings, which in this context means “much more faggot”. There are those who place in warm the origin of the slang Schwul (without umlauts), a derogatory expression at the beginning but which is currently a neutral term widely used as a synonym for gay.
Finally it should be noted that warm is also used as a neutral term inside and outside the LGBT scene as synonymous with gay, so Warme Meile (the warm mile) was the name given to the gay neighborhood of Cologne city in the 1950s, the radio station Deutsche Welle was known as the Warme Welle (the warm wave) for its high percentage of LGBT workers, and the expression Warmherzig (warm heart ) is used as a synonym for gay and lesbian.
Related: warme Freundschaft (warm friendship = homosexuality), Auf die warme Fahrt gehen (go out for a warm walk = look for a homosexual couple who pays), warme Arbeist (warm work = homosexual activity); warmer Akt (warm act), warme Arie (warm aria), warme Küche (warm cooking), Wärmebehandlung (heat treatment), Wärmelehre (thermodynamics) and Wärmetechnik (thermal engineering) mean homosexual sex; jemanden die warme Schulter zeigen (show warm shoulder to somenone = want homosexual relationships with someone); warm angehaucht (warm trend), wärmehaltig (that keeps the heat) and warm angelegt sein (being horny) mean homosexual (adjective).
2Warmer Bruder
Warmer Bruder is part of a large group of German expressions relating temperature to homosexuality, especially male, and deserves special attention, not only because of the anachronistic expressions is the best known, but because it brings with it part of the history of what we now call homosexuality, from the Middle Ages to our days.
The first part, warmer, that you can find developed in its own entry in this dictionary, can be translated in various ways and always related as warm, affectionate, heated, friendly, etc. The second, Bruder, means brother. Thus, the expression warmer Bruder can be literally translated as warm brother, affectionate brother or heated brother, and it would be a derogatory expression to refer to homosexual men.
The first references found of this slang date from the 18th century and would be related to different maneuvers of persecution and execution, as well as judicial proceedings, against male religious congregations, to which on a well-founded basis or not, were accused of homosexual behavior and pedophilia. Examples of this would be the interested annihilation of the Order of the Templars in the Middle Ages, the judicial proceedings against religious congregations in the 18th century and the Enlightenment, and those carried out by the Nazis in the 1930s, the so-called “Processes of the convents” (Klosterprozesse). These religious men were called and are usually called brothers, so Bruder would refer, not to family bond but to priests.
Regardless of whether or not the previous processes were adjusted to reality, the relationship between the Catholic Church and pedophilia, caused in our opinion by the unnatural aberration of celibacy, is an indisputable and cutting edge fact, whose action and impunity logically is increasing the further back we go back in time. The slang warmer Bruder, therefore, could have its origin in sexuality on the part of male members of the Catholic Church that was extended to all homosexual men by the mere fact of being so. For this reason, we prefer to translate warmer Bruder as a warm priest.
Variations: Webe (abbreviation), warmer Onkel (warm dude)
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