Gehstumpenflunked?

May 29, 2013 8:40 PM

I am, quite frankly, gehstumpenflunked. What does this word mean, you may ask? Perhaps you (and by "you", I mean "me) tried to Google it to no avail. And yet, to me it's a word that exists and I used somewhere probably starting ca. 1990. It means, essentially something along the lines of: stumped, confused, bewildered, or disoriented. One friend asked if it was not in an episode of Golden Girls, and I'm not sure if he was joking or serious, so I wonder... Has anyone else heard this word? If so, where/when and do you know the origin. If not, well... I guess I'll have to assume it was just a made up word that somehow caught on with my local group of friends. The "s" in "stumpen" is more like "sh" and "eh" might be more like "ger" (or at least a minor 'r' sound, if not 100% explicit) sounding so it might be something like Gershtumpenflunked. in sound.
posted by symbioid to Writing & Language (14 answers total)

It does sound like a word Betty White would make up for Golden Girls. But what about that game show skit from Saturday Night Live where you would race to organize your dresser - Shtockenblocken? Also sounds like a made up word from that skit.
posted by cda at 9:24 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I am wondering, I feel like perhaps Shpongle might have used the word in one of their songs, the phrase "Completely gehstumpenflunked" seems to stand out to me... I'll see if I can track it down. But I know we used it in the early 90s for sure...
posted by symbioid at 9:36 PM on May 29, 2013

Response by poster: Interesting, the word from Shpongle is in Room 23, but it's not the same as the one I had...
geschtonkenflapped...

"'I'm feeling very shpongled.
Smashed,mashed, completely geschtonkenflapped.
To be shpongled is to be kippered, mashed, smashed, destroyed
COMPLETELY GESCHTONKENFLAPPED
Feel so smooth.....Everything tingling'"

-------------
So... I mean, it's... kinda related? This album came out in 2001, however, so I don't think it's the source since it's 11 years later. But maybe they came from some similar source.
posted by symbioid at 9:48 PM on May 29, 2013

Perhaps it's a Yiddish word? I remember my grandpa using either ungashtupt ("overstuffed") or ongeshtopt ("very wealthy"), which both sound a bit like gehstump to my non-Yiddish-speaking ear.
posted by Jotnbeo at 10:06 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

it's probably just faux-german like this early computer humor.
posted by empath at 10:17 PM on May 29, 2013 [2 favorites]

I keep coming back to a scene from Blazing Saddles. Does this ring any bells with you?

Lili Von Shtupp: "Vhy don't you admit it? He's too much of man for you. I know. You're going to need an army to beat him! You're finished. Fertig! Verfallen! Verlumpt! Verblunget! Verkackt!"
posted by calgirl at 10:18 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

It might be relevant that the Volkswagen Fahrvergnugen commercial came out in the US in 1990, and it inspired a lot of faux-German.
posted by bluedaisy at 10:29 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Yeah - I figured it was either German or Yiddish (well, German, mostly...) Faux, probably... I just can't help but feel that there's some actual history behind it somehow. I have to admit I've never seen Blazing Saddles (or only bits of it).
posted by symbioid at 10:29 PM on May 29, 2013

Faux, probably...

the English 'ed' for past tense ending gives that away.
posted by pompomtom at 10:49 PM on May 29, 2013

There were a *lot* of fahrfergnugen parodies at the time.
posted by rhizome at 11:00 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

If it was German it would be written gestumpenflunkt, which does not exist. "Stumpen" by itself could be a short cigar or something truncated.

Your word doesn't seem all that likely in German, for reasons I can't quite put my finger on; maybe because the meaning you ascribe to it would overlap with its first component, stumped, as if it was a verb, and then glue another verb to it to reinforce it, and I can't think of a similar construction in German.
posted by dhoe at 11:30 PM on May 29, 2013 [1 favorite]

"Gehstumpen" is a german, rather rarely used colloquial term for legs. "Geh" is derived from the verb "gehen" which means "to go". "Stumpen" are cylindrical formed things.
posted by clinepid at 4:14 AM on May 30, 2013 [1 favorite]

Another vote for Blinkenlights-style faux German (probably as gestumpenflunkt). It's a word that parses well in English to get its meaning across, and looks just German enough to get by.
posted by specialagentwebb at 5:33 AM on May 30, 2013

"Abgestumpft" is an adjective meaning dulled /blunted (as in a dull knife), while "stumpf unken" is slang for a flabby butt. German is pretty liberal about sticking a bunch of words together to make new nouns. Unless you are able to parse out the components right, you wouldn't necessarily be able to look up a specific glued together word.
posted by chrisulonic at 5:55 PM on May 30, 2013 [1 favorite]