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ANIMALS

German word of the day: Das Faultier

A sloth living in Germany was just named as the world's oldest. We take a look at Paula and the very literal German name for her species.

Published: 16 October 2019 16:50 CEST
German word of the day: Das Faultier
Paula on June 14th at the Bergzoo Halle (Saale). Photo: DPA

Many German words are famously formed from two nouns in a quite literal way, and this often applies for animal names.

Take the skunk (Stinktier, or stinky animal), platypus (Schnabeltier, or beak animal), or octopus (Tintenfisch, or ink fish), slug (Nachtschnecke, or naked snail). And that’s just to name a few. 

So it’s little surprise that a sloth (Faultier) translates directly to “lazy animal”. The apt name describes the slow moving (and adorable) mammals known to hang for hours on end from tree branches with their long limbs and claws.

Paula: the oldest living sloth

On Tuesday, Paula, a Faultier at the Bergzoo Halle (Salle), made it into the Guinness Book of World Records for being the oldest living sloth.

“We submitted an application for Paula and it's just confirmed,” Jutta Heuer, who keeps a breed registry of sloths in Europe, told DPA.

Officially categorized as a Zweifinger-Faultier (two finger sloth), Paula has lived in the Bergzoo Halle (Saale) since 1971 and celebrated her birthday in June. 

Paula hanging on a branch on June 14th at the Bergzoo Halle (Saale). Photo: DPA

“There is no known specimen in zoos or in the wild that has more years under its belt,” Heuer added.

According to the Smithsonian institute, the average lifespan of two finger sloth in captivity is 16 years, making Paula’s longevity all the more remarkable.

At the end of 2018, there were a total of 65 sloths in Germany's zoos and 266 in Europe.

The announcement came just a few days shy of the official ‘World Sloth Day’ on October 20th. The majority of Faultiere live in the tropical rainforests of South and Central America.

There are a number of German non-profits which work to help the sloths in these regions amid rampant deforestation. 

Example sentences:

Paula ist das älteste bekannte Faultier der Welt.

Paula is the oldest known sloth in the world.

Faultiere brauchen wenig Nahrung und schlafen bis zu 20 Stunden pro Tag.

Sloths don’t need much food and sleep up to 20 hours a day.

 

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GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY

German word of the day: Sitzpinkler

Do you sit down when you pee? If so, this funny German term applies to you. But don’t worry, in this country, you’re not alone.

Published: 8 May 2024 11:41 CEST
German word of the day: Sitzpinkler

Der Sitzpinkler, pronounced like this, is a practical and hilarious German compound word that combines sitzen ‘to sit’ and Pinkler ‘pisser’ (from pinkeln ‘to pee’).

The term is typically reserved for men, and male-bodied people, who choose to take a seat when they urinate.

See also Sitzpisser.

Why do I need to know ‘Sitzpinkler’?

This one is perhaps most likely to come up at the pub among men who’ve let the conversation drift toward life’s more grotesque and banal questions: how do you position yourself when you pee?

But Sitzpinkler is also an insult in German. If you mean to call someone a wuss, or imply that they are effeminate and pampered in a derogatory way (with the added sting of a grade-school insult), then you can call them a Sitzpinkler.

By the way, while you’re at it, you may as well call them a Warmduscher (a warm showerer) and a Schattenparker (a shade parker) as well.

Who pees sitting down?

Despite its use as an insult, sitting down to urinate happens to be a very common habit among German men – and there is sufficient data to back this up.

sit down while peeing sign in Germany

“Standing up – wrong. Sitting down – right.” A sign urges guests to sit down to pee in a cafe restroom in Berlin. Photo by Paul Krantz

British data analytics firm YouGov, “conducted a 13-country study on men’s peeing preferences internationally” which confirmed that German men are by far the most likely to be Sitzpinklers.

According to the YouGov poll, 62 percent of German men sit down to pee ‘most times’, with 40 percent saying they sit down to pee ‘every time’. Only 10 percent of German men say they ‘never’ do.

In comparison, men in the US or the UK are largely opposed to the idea, with more than 30 percent of men in each country saying they never sit down, and only about 10 percent sitting each time.

Incidentally, perhaps the wildest finding of the above poll is that four to six percent of men in each country ‘don’t know’ if they sit or stand when they pee. Perhaps this partially explains the state of public restrooms.

A brief defence of thrown sitters

Coming from the US myself, I can confirm that the idea to make a practice of sitting for a pee at home never really occurred to me until I came to Germany. 

I had moved into a shared flat, and on the topic of house cleaning duties, a German suggested that if we all sat down on the toilet, it would generally stay cleaner. I didn’t resist – I’ll try anything once – and now I’ve joined team Sitpinkler.

I’ve admitted as much to friends from the US and received raised eyebrows, but logically I just can’t condone misting my bathroom floor with urine when I know how easily avoidable it is.

Additionally, there is some research that seating peeing may actually be better for men with prostate and bladder health issues.

But to each their own, I guess. 

By the way, stand-up guys need not worry too much. While Germany may be a nation of seated tinklers, the country’s courts have previously ruled in defence of the right to stand up and pee in your own home.

 

Use it like this:

Bist du ein Sitzpinkler?

Are you a sit-down pisser?

Du hast Angst!? Sei nicht so ein Sitzpinkler.

You’re scared!? Don’t be such a wimp.

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