gemutlich

English

Alternative forms

• gemuetlich
• gemütlich

Etymology

From German gemütlich (“comfortable, cozy, genial, pleasant”), from Middle High German gemüetlich, from gemüet (“mind, mentality”) + -lich (“-ly”), equivalent to Gemüt (“mind, soul”) +‎ -lich (“-ly”). More at mood, -ly.

Pronunciation

• (RP) enPR: gəmütʹlĭĸʜ, IPA: /ɡəˈmyːtlɪç/, X-SAMPA: /g@"my:tlIC/

Adjective

gemutlich (comparative more gemutlich, superlative most gemutlich)

1. Comfortable, cozy, snug, pleasant.

   1964, Nation, Issues 135-159^[1], edition Digitized, Nation Review, published 2011, page 98:

   However, to any Nation readers who think that gemutlich is not “a living word" I am glad to be able to inform them that Harold Nicolson in his volume Good Behaviour has a whole chapter on Gemutlichkeit, ...

   1973, Edward G. Robinson, Leonard Spigelgass, All My Yesterdays, edition Digitized, Autobiography, Hawthorn Books, published 2008, page 80:

   …and there's always a buzz of conversation and somebody's playing the piano, and it's gemutlich. / To one of those particularly gemutlich evenings I invited a stockbroker who lived in Guilford, and he arrived with a lady named Gladys Lloyd.

2. Friendly, genial, cheerful, easy-going.

   1997 January 26, Judith Miller, “FILM: Making Money Abroad, And Also a Few Enemies”, New York Times, New York:

   The censors cut one in which Judd Hirsch, who plays Mr. Goldblum's gemutlich, Yiddish-spouting father,

Related terms

• gemuth
• gemutlichkeit