katzenjammer

See also: Katzenjammer

English

Alternative forms

• Katzenjammer

Etymology

Borrowed from German Katzenjammer (“hangover”, literally “the wailing of cats”); a determinative compound formed from Katze (“cat”) +‎ -n- +‎ Jammer (“wailing; lamentation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkætsənd͡ʒæmə(ɹ)/

Noun

katzenjammer (plural katzenjammers)

1. A hangover.
   • 1913 August, Jack London, John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC:

     Also, I had found my way into the realm of the mind, and I was intellectually intoxicated. (Alas! as I was to learn at a later period, intellectual intoxication too, has its katzenjammer.)

   • 1936, Henry Miller, “Burlesk”, in Black Spring, Paris: The Obelisk Press […], →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, 1963, →ISBN, page 229:

     In those days a still-birth brought as high as ten dollars and after riding the shoot-the-chutes we always left a little stale beer for the morning because the finest thing in the world for Katzenjammer is a glass of stale beer.

2. Jitters; discord; confusion.
   • 1909 April, O. Henry [pseudonym; William Sydney Porter], “Two Renegades”, in Roads of Destiny, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, →OCLC, page 356:

     Tell you the truth, I've had an intimation from the State Department—unofficially, of course—that whenever a soldier of fortune demands a fleet of gunboats in a case of revolutionary katzenjammer, I should cut the cable, give him all the tobacco he wants, and after he's shot take his clothes, if they fit me, for part payment of my salary.

3. Depression.