nörgeln

German

Alternative forms

  • nergeln, närgeln, nirgeln, nürgeln (archaic)

Etymology

Of Central German origin. According to Pfeifer, from an onomatopoeic Proto-Indo-European *(s)nur- (to grumble), along with schnarchen, schnarren, and schnurren, and cognate with Dutch nurken (to growl), as well as, outside Germanic, Lithuanian niauróti (to hum), niurnė́ti (to murmur, growl), snarglỹs (nasal mucus), Latvian nurrāt (to purr), nirgt (to show one's teeth), nerkstēt (to whine, moan).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈnœʁɡl̩n/
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

nörgeln (weak, third-person singular present nörgelt, past tense nörgelte, past participle genörgelt, auxiliary haben)

  1. to nag, grumble

Conjugation

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Wolfgang Pfeifer, editor (1993), “nörgeln”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen (in German), 2nd edition, Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, →ISBN

Further reading