Ungeziefer

From early modern German ungeziffer, Ungezieffer, a variant form of Middle High German ungezibere. These pertain to Old High German zebar (“sacrificial animal”) and hence originally meant “animals unsuitable for sacrifice”, ultimately from Proto-Germanic *tībrą (“offering, sacrifice, victim”). The word is rarely attested in medieval texts due to suppression of words reminiscent of heathen practices, but must have survived in lower registers.

• IPA^(key): /ˈʊnɡəˌt͡siːfɐ/, /ˈʊŋɡə-/

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Ungeziefer n (strong, genitive Ungeziefers, plural Ungeziefer)

1. (uncountable, collective) vermin; pests; restricted to small animals, usually insects or spiders, sometimes also mice, etc.

   Hypernym: Schädling

   Der Küchenschrank saß voller Motten und dieses Ungeziefer war in alle Dosen und Tüten eingedrungen.

   The kitchen cupboard was full of moths and these vermin had got into all containers and bags.

2. (countable, rare) a vermin animal; a despised creature
   • 1915 October, Franz Kafka, “Die Verwandlung [The Metamorphosis]”, in Die Weißen Blätter ‎, volume 2, number 10, Verlag der Weißen Bücher; republished as Willa Muir, transl., 1933:

     Als Gregor Samsa eines Morgens aus unruhigen Träumen erwachte, fand er sich in seinem Bett zu einem ungeheuren Ungeziefer verwandelt.

     As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into an enormous insect.

• “Ungeziefer” in Duden online
• Ungeziefer on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• Ungeziefer on the German Wikiquote.Wikiquote ^de
• “Ungeziefer” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache