One of the funny stereotypes I've heard in which English speakers seem to think about the German language is that it is somehow harsh or brutal and that one aspect of this harshness is that German "doesn't have a word for 'fluffy'".
And it's true, we don't. Or rather, we do. Several of them.
But our concepts differ from the English and that's why there is not a 1 : 1 correspondence between words that can be used in German and English to express the quality of fluffiness.
As a teacher, I often see how much this can confuse students. As a lover of language, I find the topic fascinating. As a near-bilingual in German and English, I come across situations where a word seems to be 'missing' in one of the languages pretty regularly.
And that's what this blog is about.
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In case you were wondering: the German word for 'fluffy' is 'flauschig'. They look like they are related, too. However, only textiles can be 'flauschig' - pillows or towels that are 'fluffy' are 'flauschig'. A soufflé, however, can be 'fluffy' but not 'flauschig'. You would have to say 'luftig' in that case ('airy').
It seems, though, that Germans have internalised the reproach - or felt the need for a cute and easy word to cover all aspects of fluffiness, and so, in the last ten years or so, have come up with the word 'fluffig' - an obvious adaptation of the English word - which has made it into the dictionary, too.
