Pausbacke

German

Alternative forms

• (obsolete) Bausbacke

Etymology

• The word is documented since the 16th century. It is a compound formed with the noun Backe and the stem of an obsolete verb whose (West Central German) Late Middle High German form was pūsen (see pusten) and whose Early New High German equivalent was pausen, bausen ‘to be blown-up; to billow, to distend; to swell; to be full of, to be bursting with’. In Early New High German these forms were merged with the verb bauschen whose Middle High German equivalents were biuschen and būschen ‘to beat, to knock’ which was influenced semantically by them (see bauschen).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈpaʊ̯sˌbakə]

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: Paus‧ba‧cke

Noun

Pausbacke f (genitive Pausbacke, plural Pausbacken)

1. (colloquial, generally in the plural) chubby facial cheek with a red/reddish complexion (especially of a child)
   • 1934, Thomas Mann: Joseph und seine Brüder: Roman. Volume 2: Der junge Joseph, S. Fischer, Berlin, p. 88 (GoogleBooks; retrieved October 6, 2015):
     Translation:
     1944, Thomas Mann: Joseph and His Brothers. Volume 2: The Young Joseph, A. A. Knopf, New York, p. 62 (GoogleBooks; retrieved October 6, 2015):

     „Meine Pausbacken sind ebenfalls zart und weich“, bemerkte Benjamin und befühlte mit beiden Handflächen seine Wangen.

     “My chubby cheeks are soft and tender too,” Benjamin remarked, and felt his cheeks with both his little palms.

Declension

Declension of Pausbacke [feminine]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	eine	die	Pausbacke	die	Pausbacken
genitive	einer	der	Pausbacke	der	Pausbacken
dative	einer	der	Pausbacke	den	Pausbacken
accusative	eine	die	Pausbacke	die	Pausbacken

Derived terms

• (regional) Pausback
• Pausbäckchen
• pausbäckig/(rarer) pausbackig

See also

• Apfelbäckchen
• Birnennase
• Hamsterbacke, Hamsterbäckchen
• Kirschmund

Further reading

• “Pausbacke” in Duden online
• “Pausbacke” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “Pausbacke” in Deutsches Wörterbuch von Jacob und Wilhelm Grimm, 16 vols., Leipzig 1854–1961.
• “Pausbacke” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon