Sitzfleisch

From German Sitzfleisch.

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɪtsflaɪʃ/

Sitzfleisch

1. (uncountable) The ability to endure or carry on with an activity.
   • 1947, Frank Vigor Morley, “My One Contribution to Chess”, in Chess Notes, Faber & Faber:

     Sitzfleisch: a term used in chess to indicate winning by use of the glutei muscles--the habit of remaining stolid in one's seat hour by hour, making moves that are sound but uninspired, until one's opponent blunders through boredom.

   • 2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Penguin, published 2004, page 203:

     He never dallied with the image, beloved of the Renaissance, of the lean and shrunk-shanked scholar, possessed of infinite Sitzfleisch and inured to pain.

   • 2019 May 16, A.J. Goldmann, “A Festival of German Theater, Where More Is More”, in New York Times‎:

     This year’s installment of Theatertreffen Berlin, the spring festival of the best of German-language theater that has been going strong since 1964, required some sitzfleisch — that is, the ability to stay planted on your derrière without fidgeting for the duration of a Wagner opera.

2. (slang) A person's bottom; the posterior.
   • 1987, The Lexington Reader, page 530:

     Just as he was snorting and puffing like a grampus, I chanced to observe a quite formidable scar on his Sitzfleisch. With an apology for the personal nature of the question, I asked if it was a war wound of some kind.

From sitzen (“to sit”) +‎ Fleisch (“flesh”).

• IPA^(key): /ˈzɪt͡sflaɪʃ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Sitzfleisch n (strong, genitive Sitzfleisches or Sitzfleischs, no plural)

1. (colloquial) buttocks

   Synonym: Gesäß

2. (colloquial, by extension) ability to sit still, Sitzfleisch

   Diese Tätigkeit erfordert sehr viel Sitzfleisch.

   This activity requires a lot of Sitzfleisch.

• “Sitzfleisch” in Duden online