Articles and Stories

July 8, 2014

The Germans, just like people in most other countries, have incorporated manyAnglicisms in their everyday vocabulary. An Anglicism is a word borrowed from English into another language. There are many words that come from the English language that Germans are using, often by adding a German ending to it.

A German reporter recently asked Americans if they understood the word ‘handy’. With microphone in hand and cameraman in tow, he interviewed Americans he encountered in a park and who were willing to talk to him.

None of the people he interviewed understood what that word meant. Guesses were made from it being a dirty word, to being a handkerchief or even a toilet.

A ‘handy’ is what Germans call their cell phone. It is such a common word that you can even see it on German business cards and on storefronts.

It appears that nobody is sure how the word “handy” appeared in the German language to mean cellphone, and opinions are divided about how the usage of this word started. Some say that Motorola introduced the ‘Handie-Talkie’ during WWII. The ‘Handie-Talkie’ was the lighter successor to the Walkie-Talkie, which was later known as the ‘breaky-backy’ to the troops. The GIs during WWII used to carry their ‘Handie-Talkie’ with them at all time and it is only understandable that the modern cell phone took over that word and abbreviated it. There seems to be an image of the American GI with his Handie-Talkie, which took hold in Germany and the usage has been around ever since. It has been used for various mobile radio devices from companies like Bosch and Siemens either as Handie or Handy.

Others feel that the word ‘Handy’ comes from the German word ‘handlich’, which means ‘handy’.

Yet others believe it started when the cellphone was referred to as a “handheld” in Britain.

My personally favorite theory is that it originated from the Swabian “Hen die koi Schnur?” (pronounced “handy koi shnoor?”, meaning “Don’t they have a cord?”)