My least favourite German compound
Normally I love German’s ability to coin new words by sticking existing words together like Lego, but today I came across a rather cynical recent(ish) compound: Lebensabschnittspartner. Let me break it down for you. It consists of “Leben” (life) + “Abschnitt” (episode/period) + “Partner”. Given current divorce rates, I can understand the cynicism, and yet. Would you really like to be a partner-for-current-life-period? Just because, like Picasso, you’re having a blue period, there is no need to label your relationships. Although, I’ll give you that, I can see why Henry VIII might have found it a valuable addition to his vocabulary.
Not only is it glaringly unromantic, but also rather ungrateful. Nothing is guaranteed in this life, including love. This state of affairs has remained unaltered since, well, forever, so I have no sympathy for these spurned lovers. Perhaps more marriages end in divorce than in earlier periods, although it is rarely mentioned than in earlier periods it was also rather common to croak at the ripe age of 50. So on average people are still together for the same amount of time.
Also, they can play the “realism” card to their heart’s content, as if they hadn’t realised that the the human heart is rarely powered by logic. Otherwise we would stop buying lottery tickets, sending peace envoys to the Middle East and supporting the England football team. Realism is often conspicuous for its absence, more perhaps that we would like, but this is still infinitely better than to assume that Schrödinger’s cat is already dead. You will never know until you have opened that box. Pandora’s attempt was famously unfortunate, but what is rarely mentioned is that after all the evil spirits have been freed, a single one remained in the box. This was Elpis, or “hope” in Greek.
