GRGR(22)-German Words

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

David schrieb:

> >From Tim Ware's HyperArts GR site at:
> http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/gravity/gravity-f.html


> 493, 569: Bohnenkaffee: pure coffee


   literally: "bean coffee". the counter notion is "ersatzkaffee" (- "substitute 
   coffee"), which, i think, did not contain any real coffee at all. in everyday 
   life the ersatzkaffee was called "muckefuck" (- both "u"s pronounced german & 
   short). my etymological dictionary says the word can be found in writings 
   since the 19th century, at first in the rheinland. it's probably the 
   germanized form of the french "mocca faux" (- "wrong mocca"). the dictionary 
   doesn't say anything about possible relations to the famous english f-word (- 
   anyone?). my parental grandmother used to use the phrase "der gute 
   bohnenkaffee" til the late 70s, though she probably hadn't had to drink 
   any muckefuck at all since 1949.
   but, of course, each year before x-mas all the west germans were 
   preparing packages for their poor relatives in east germany, "in der zone", 
   like it was called in the west til the wall came tumbling down. [- now &    
   then, to be honest, us damn carpetbaggers still use this - now pretty    
   uncorrect - pynchonesque word ...] & those packages, no matter what else was 
   inside them (- books and records were highly forbidden & lots of stuff was 
   stolen by the local authorities), did  a l w a y s  contain real bean    
   coffee (- "jacobs krönung" created a special tv-spot aiming at this    
   practice). in the ddr they had some but not enough bohnenkaffee. & us    
   westernized lucky ones were - with each and every package - celebrating the  
   fact that we, though having lost the war, did win the peace ...  

   kai frederik (- drinking each morning, while reading the faz, two jumbo-cups 
   of "dallmayr prodomo", no sugar, lots of milk)