Wednesday, January 04, 2017

Unberufen

This is a German word meaning roughly "knock on wood." It is supposed to head off the ill effects of some superstitious word or curse. We encounter it (spelled "oom beroofen") in the P. G. Wodehouse novel, Right Ho, Jeeves, where Aunt Dahlia utters it in opposition to a scheme that Bertie has proposed.

1 comment:

Jacques Denie said...

Thanks. I thought I had a decent knowledge of English (and German), but this phrase perplexed me, reading that masterpiece by Wodehouse.