seicht

German

Etymology

From Middle High German sīhte (low, shallow). Related with sinken (to sink).[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /zaɪ̯çt/ (Germany)
    • Audio:(file)(Germany)
  • IPA(key): /saɪ̯çt/, [saɛ̯çt] (Austria, Southern Germany, Switzerland)
  • Rhymes: -aɪ̯çt

Adjective

seicht (strong nominative masculine singular seichter, comparative seichter, superlative am seichtesten)

  1. shallow (of water only)
    Synonyms: untief, flach
  2. (figuratively) simple, light, having little depth (e.g. of a book)
    Synonym: flach

Usage notes

  • Seicht is more likely to be used when the shallowness of a given book or film is intended (as e.g. in a romantic comedy), while flach tends to mean that something fails to reach the depth to which it aspires or which would be expected of it.

Declension

Derived terms

References

  1. ^ Friedrich Kluge (1883) “seicht”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

Further reading