GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY
If you’re stuck in a fruitless argument, this phrase in German might be just the thing you need to get out of it.
Published: 24 October 2022 11:08 CEST
Updated: 31 October 2022 16:38 CET
Why do I need to know “Fighting for the Emperor’s Beard”?
Because it not only has an interesting history behind it, but can also be a useful way to end a conversation that’s going nowhere.
What does it mean?
Fight for the Emperor’s beard literally means to argue about the emperor’s beard. You may already have heard the word Kaisermeaning emperor, when visiting a museum or learning about Austrian history. To quarrelmeanwhile, means to argue or quarrel. It can be helpful to think of the English word “strife” here as a way to remember it.
As you might expect, the phrase doesn’t actually refer to conversations about imperialists’ facial hair. Instead, it’s used to describe debates over trivialities or things that don’t really matter – usually without any hope of finding a resolution. A colloquial alternative would be “arguing about trifles”which means to quarrel over nothing.
The idiom became the theme of a poem by the 19th century poet Emanuel Geibels titled From the Emperor’s beard. In the poem, three young men argue in a pub about whether Frederick the Great’s beard was blonde, red or white – and end up in a sword fight.
Where does it come from?
There are various theories about the origins of the phrase.
One theory suggests that the emperor’s beard is a distortion of the Latin phrase “de lana caprina rixari”, which means to quarrel over goat’s wool, i.e. about nothing. The analogy relates to the fact that “lana” (wool) was such a vague term that it was unclear whether it referred to sheep’s wool, the wool of other animals, or even material from plants.
Since “Geißbart” (goat’s beard) in German sounds rather similar to “Kaisers Bart”some academics believe that the Latin phrase transitioned from goat’s wool to emperor’s beard over time.
There are also some quite literal instances of scholars having meaningless arguments over emperors’ facial hair. For example, historians are said to have argued fiercely over whether Emperor Charlemagne wore a beard or not.
Use it like this:
The two are arguing again about the Emperor’s beard.
The two of them are arguing about nothing again.
One shouldn’t fight over the Emperor’s beard.
One should not quarrel about trivialities.