Vielfraß
German
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle High German vilvrāz, from Old High German filifrāz. By surface analysis, viel (“much”) + Fraß, the latter being used here in the now obsolete sense “eater” (rather than “food”).
Noun
Vielfraß m (strong, genitive Vielfraßes, plural Vielfraße, feminine (both rare) Vielfräßin or Vielfraßin)
- glutton (person who eats a lot)
- Synonyms: Fresser, Fresssack, Nimmersatt, Schlemmer, Gourmand
- 1794, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, “Zweyter Gesang”, in Reinecke Fuchs [Reynard the Fox] (Goethe's neue Schriften), page 57:
- Meynt ihr, sagte der Bär, ich sey ein Vielfras? mit nichten! Maaß ist überall gut, bey allen Dingen […]
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
- 1889, Sebastian Kneipp, So sollt ihr leben!, Kempten:
- Mit Recht sagt auch das Sprüchwort: Ein Vielfraß wird nicht geboren, sondern nur erzogen. Man kann die Natur an Alles gewöhnen und auch so gewöhnen, daß sie gierig nach dem verlangt, was sie umbringt.
- The saying also rightly says: A glutton is not born, but only raised. You can get nature used to anything and get used to it so that it greedily desires what kills it.
Declension
Etymology 2
16th century, calque of Middle Low German vēlvrât (“wolverine”, literally “glutton”), also vēlvras, vēlvratz (this last being the earliest attested form in 1498). Further in all likelihood a folk-etymological alteration of Old Norse *fjallfress ~ *fellfross (literally “mountain cat”), from fjall, fell (“mountain”) + fress, *fross (“tomcat”).
The Old Norse origin has been disputed because Norwegian fjellfross (“wolverine”) is only found in local dialects and is attested later than the Middle Low German. Moreover, the German form was later borrowed into Danish and Swedish (see descendants below). The usual Scandinavian word for the animal is jerv, jærv, järv. Nevertheless, the etymology is now generally accepted on semantic grounds. The popular belief that the wolverine is particularly voracious only developed because of the name, not vice versa. Additionally, the existence of the Middle Low German forms in -s, -tz supports the derivation, because in a native compound we should expect only -t (and a borrowing from High German into Low German is not plausible for a Scandinavian animal in the 15th century).
Noun
Vielfraß m (strong, genitive Vielfraßes, plural Vielfraße)
- wolverine, glutton (Gulo gulo)
- 1877, Alfred Brehm, Brehms Tierleben, volume 2, Leipzig, page 103:
- Hierdurch bekundet der ausgezeichnete Naturforscher, was der Vielfraß ist: ein Mittelglied zwischen den genannten Familien. Der Vielfraß, eine der plumpesten Gestalten der Marderfamilie, vertritt eine besondere Sippe (Gulo) […]
- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
Declension
Descendants
- → Danish: felfraads
- → Dutch: veelvraat (calque)
- → English: glutton (calque)
- → Latin: gulo (calque)
- → Swedish: filfras