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A comment on Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need. Parent comment

Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by eqvinox on Friday August 28, 2026 @02:17PM (#49482431)
As a German, I might not have thought of that but would absolutely use it to translate Verschlimmbesserung. Does it sound "normal" enough to native English speakers?
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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by ThrowawayR2 on Friday August 28, 2026 @03:41PM (#49483300)
The sibling post's "disimprovement" sounds more natural and has parallel form with pre-existing broadly accepted English words like "disincentive" and "disinfect".
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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by eqvinox on Friday August 28, 2026 @09:23PM (#49486071)
Not sure if that's just me, but "disimprovement" sounds like *removing* an improvement that was previously there…
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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by ThrowawayR2 on Sunday August 30, 2026 @12:08PM (#49499935)
An improvement isn't all or nothing, it can be incremental. The dis- prefix only indicates that the increment is negative in this case.
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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by clbrmbr on Friday August 28, 2026 @02:45PM (#49482745)
It's totally plausible portmanteau. I get the feeling thought that it sounds more marked in English than in German where these kind of mashups are formed more freely.
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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by inanutshellus on Friday August 28, 2026 @02:29PM (#49482582)
It's definitely a normal-sounding, memorable word for us native English speakers.

Meanwhile I won't be able to remember that German word longer than it takes me to close this tab. Vershumthingsomething.

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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by groestl on Friday August 28, 2026 @02:29PM (#49482589)
Thumbs up, let's settle on that translation
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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by arjan_sch on Friday August 28, 2026 @02:24PM (#49482517)
I'm Dutch, sounds pretty good to me
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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by pndy on Saturday August 29, 2026 @03:30AM (#49487746)
I'm darn sure that in time the original German pronounciation would be lost and you'd hear something comparable to reading Straße as "Strabe".

Probably it would become "verskimbeserong".

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Re:Verschlimmbesserung: The Word Your Software Updates Need by amiga386 on Saturday August 29, 2026 @08:00AM (#49489152)
It doesn't sound normal. "worse-" doesn't fit as a replacement for the "im-" prefix, because the "se" ending doesn't flow well into the plosive "prov".

"disimprove" works much better.

The similar word "unimproved" implies you did nothing to make it better, "disimproved" implies you actively made it worse.

But this is still just effectively adding "not" to the word. If you must join two words that are the antonyms of each other (like verbessern and verschlimmern), the closest match I can think of is the vulgar pun "fuxed", a blend of "fixed" (repaired) and "fucked" (broke). https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Fuxed

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