Lebenslüge

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German

FWOTD – 1 February 2018

Etymology

From Leben (“life”) +‎ -s- +‎ Lüge (“lie”), calque of Danish livsløgn (coined by Ibsen in his 1884 play Vildanden).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈleː.bənsˌlyːɡə/, ,
  • Hyphenation: Le‧bens‧lü‧ge

Noun

Lebenslüge f (genitive Lebenslüge, plural Lebenslügen)

  1. self-delusion, self-deception, lived lie, (rare) life lie (a delusion that is at the core of how a person or a group see themselves and that is part of their identity)
    • 1898-1903 [1884], Henrik Ibsen, “Die Wildente”, in Sämtliche Werke; in deutscher Sprache, volume 7, Berlin: Fischer, page 326:
      Gregers. Herr Doktor, ich ruhe nicht, bis ich Hjalmar aus Ihren Klauen befreit habe.
      Relling. Das wäre für ihn das größte Unglück. Nehmen Sie einem Durchschnittsmenschen die Lebenslüge, und Sie nehmen ihm zu gleicher Zeit das Glück.
      Gregers. Doctor, I will not rest until I have freed Hjalmar from your claws.
      Relling. That would be the greatest misfortune for him. If you take from an average person the lie they are living, you at the same time take away their happiness.
    • 2009, Herfried Münkler, Jens Hacke, Wege in die neue Bundesrepublik: Politische Mythen, →ISBN:
      Hieß es seit den 1960er Jahren, die Wiedervereinigung sei die Lebenslüge der Bundesrepublik, so erscholl es mit der Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands ab 1989/90 aus dem Munde eher konservativer Historiker, die postnationale Demokratie sei die Lebenslüge der Bundesrepublik gewesen.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2015, Der Spiegel‎, number 1/2015, page 26:
      Das normative Projekt des Westens beginnt schon mit einer Lebenslüge. Die Unterzeichner der ersten Menschenrechtserklärung von 1776 in Virginia waren zum erheblichen Teil Sklavenhalter.
      The normative project of the West already starts with a self-delusion. A large part of the signatories of the first Declaration of Human Rights of 1776 in Virginia were slaveholders.

Declension

Declension of Lebenslüge
singular plural
indef. def. noun def. noun
nominative eine die Lebenslüge die Lebenslügen
genitive einer der Lebenslüge der Lebenslügen
dative einer der Lebenslüge den Lebenslügen
accusative eine die Lebenslüge die Lebenslügen

Further reading

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia