Intercultural Word of the Week! Ohrwurm...l

The German word Ohrwurm is one you definitely be subjected to if you come to the Dazzling Deutsch Disco at the #euramunich conference in April 2019… 

“Dee dee da da dum… Saturday night and the air is getting hot…” 

If you’re familiar with ’90’s Europop, you will now you will have that song in your head for the next couple of hours!  This is an Ohrwurm… English translation?  An “ear worm”, what in English would be referred to as an earwig – once it crawls into your ear it’s very hard to get it out again, just like the Whigfield song above, or any of the countless others.  For the positive use of the word, it translates as a catchy tune as in;

Der neue Song von Pharell Williams ist ein Ohrwurm …

The new song by Pharell Williams is a catchy tune…

However the phrase also has the more negative connotation as well! 

I cannot get this damn tune out of my head!

Mann, ich habe einen verdammten Ohrwurm…