weismachen

make believe

Apr 17, 2025Heike Felber

It's too childish what the audience is led to believe.

Frank Wedekind: “Earth Spirit”

German is incredibly rich in words and expressions for deceiving, fooling, persuading, dumbing down...

Does this wealth of expression reflect ancient human experience?

Assuredly. Especially since many expressions are extremely plastic language images, like untying a bear or throwing sand in the eyes. The verb weismachen is additionally interesting in that it does not come from the color white - and is therefore often misspelled in dictations - but from the Middle High German wis (smart), which is why it is written with a simple s.

Source: Lexicon of Beautiful Words | Roland Kaehlbrandt and Walter Krämer

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