Spread laughter and positive energy with wordplay! Dictomancy - Everyday Wordplay is a Wednesday blog series that features rare, bizarre, and absurd words and their meanings. Work one of these words into your day and spark some laughter and curiosity!
Katzenjammer - n [Ger] A hangover; a symptom of a hangover. 1849 U.S. Congress Serial Set 571.733, Some of Mr. Hale’s men had kept up a drunken frolic all night--general kakenjammer [sic], therefore, all day. 1906 Peck Peck’s Bad Boy with Circus 103 WI, The colonel . . invited the whole crowd to go to his distillery and help themselves. When we got to the next town every man in the show had . . a Katzenhammer. [1954 WELS Suppl., If Grandmother saw a drunkard she would remark in German, “he’s got one sitting,” and for anyone suffering from a hangover she would come up with, “that’s a real katzenjammer.”]
“If you ain’t got a katzenjammer when you leave the party, you ain’t doin’ it right.”
“Never had a katzenjammer like that before.”
“Yep, she’s the one with the katzenjammer. She slept it off in the guest room.”
Please share and comment on today’s Dictomancy and feel free to post your uses for the words in a positive, lighthearted way. Audience participation makes Everyday Wordplay hilarious!
Works Cited
Cassidy, Frederic G. Chief Editor. Dictionary Of American Regional English. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1985. Print