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katzenjammer
Mar. 29th, 2011 07:18 amkatzenjammer (KAT-suhn-jam-er) - n., a hangover; uneasiness, anguish, distress; a discordant clamor, uproar.
Borrowed in the States around the 1840s from German, where it had the first two senses. The third is by extension from a comic strip, started in 1897, initially called The Katzenjammer Kids (and then other names upon switching newspapers). Going backwards, the original German word means literally "cat wailing" or "cat distress," where the second part is cognate with yammer.
---L.
Borrowed in the States around the 1840s from German, where it had the first two senses. The third is by extension from a comic strip, started in 1897, initially called The Katzenjammer Kids (and then other names upon switching newspapers). Going backwards, the original German word means literally "cat wailing" or "cat distress," where the second part is cognate with yammer.
---L.
