Word of the Day: Das is Geil!

Call it a word. Call it a phrase. It really doesn't matter. You can say the word to one guy who say it really means this. But the next guy says its something different.

By the dictionary, geil means horny. Old Germans will absolutely swear that it means this and they would never ever use the word unless they were locked up in their private place and thinking hot lusty thoughts. In their minds, its some Gothic gal...in black, giving you the "one-eye" (because the other is permanently hidden behind hair).

So you turn to a teenager and show them a neat new video game....and they automatically say "GEIL!"....which means in teen German-speak....nifty, neat, great, man o man.

Teachers tend to hate this word....because its really gotten misused now. How someone can say "horny" about some new bike or someone's haircut....just doesn't make sense.

So should you as an American ever use the phrase? Probably not. You probably would get to using it a fair amount and one day....talking to some 55-year old neighbor gal...you'd say her new hairstyle is geil.....and she'd start to smile, wink, and give you some impressions of lusty behavior.....then you'd realize you really said the wrong damn thing. And it'd be twice as bad if you were an American woman saying this to the 55-year old neighbor gal.

So as you are sitting there on the front door step....and the teenage girls walk by saying geil about your new car....its ok. If they are saying geil and gazing at you.....it might be a different meaning. Sadly, this is why the German language is so screwed up.