Eulenspiegel

German

Dyl Ulenspiegel

Etymology

From Ulenspiegel (1st half of the 16th century), Middle Low German Ūlenspēgel. Its modern semantics is due to the mischievous nature of Till Eulenspiegel, protagonist of a folklore published in 1515.

By surface analysis, Eule +‎ -n- +‎ Spiegel, literally “owl mirror”, an analysis already drawn upon in the original tale.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: Eu‧len‧spie‧gel

Noun

Eulenspiegel m (strong, genitive Eulenspiegels, plural Eulenspiegel)

1. jester, prankster

Declension

Declension of Eulenspiegel [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Eulenspiegel	die	Eulenspiegel
genitive	eines	des	Eulenspiegels	der	Eulenspiegel
dative	einem	dem	Eulenspiegel	den	Eulenspiegeln
accusative	einen	den	Eulenspiegel	die	Eulenspiegel

Derived terms

• Eulenspiegelei
• Eulenspiegelstreich
• eulenspiegelhaft

Further reading

• Eulenspiegel on the German Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^de
• “Eulenspiegel” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Eulenspiegel” in Duden online
• “Eulenspiegel” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon