A favorite word

Albertus, 24 April 2026

Language learners love talking about “untranslatable” words — the ones that supposedly resist being neatly carried over into another language. Usually, what people mean is simpler: there’s no single word equivalent. Take hygge, the cozy Danish and Norwegian concept that’s now made its way into English dictionaries. We don’t have a perfect one-word match, but with a few phrases — warmth, comfort, good company — we get the idea just fine.

One of my favorite Pennsylvania Dutch words is just such a word.

The folklorist Alfred Shoemaker once reflected that his success in life was thanks to an outdoor privy. As a college freshman at Muhlenberg College trying to soften his thick Pennsylvania Dutch accent, he was told by a professor to practice reading aloud daily. The only quiet place he could find? The outhouse. There, he started reading political science books by Walter Lippman aloud — until his mother would suddenly interrupt him with gscharrweschscheiss. Literally something like “dishwashing diarrhea.” In reality, it meant she just needed a break and wanted someone else to take over the chores. We don’t have a word as humorously earthy as that in English for it, but, I think we all recognize the feeling.

Outhouse in Bernville, Berks County, 1974 [1]

Reference

[1] Historic American Engineering Record, Creator, Franklin Henry Gruber, Adam Gruber, Jacob Gruber, George Gruber, John Gruber, Franklin P Gruber, et al. Gruber Wagon Works, Pennsylvania Route 183 & State Hill Road at Red Bridge Park, Bernville, Berks County, PA. Pennsylvania Bernville Berks County, 1968. translateds by Christianson, Justinemitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/pa0102/.