Zwickmühle

German

Etymology

Alteration of older Fickmühle, a compound of ficken +‎ Mühle, in which ficken is used in the archaic sense of “to slide”. The alteration was without doubt driven by the need to avoid the vulgar verb. Formally it may be due to conflation with an unattested *Zwiemühle from zwie- (“double”), as well as to association with zwicken (“to pinch”).

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈtsvɪkˌmyːlə/, [ˈt͡sʋɪkˌmyːlə]
  • Hyphenation: Zwick‧müh‧le

Noun

Zwickmühle f (genitive Zwickmühle, plural Zwickmühlen)

  1. (nine men's morris) double mill
  2. (figuratively) dilemma; Catch-22; quagmire; predicament; quandary (position in which one will suffer great disadvantage however one reacts)

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

Further reading
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