GERMAN WORD OF THE DAY
When you feel like cold, dark winter is dragging on longer than it should, this poetic German word can help you see it through until spring.
Published: 9 January 2023 17:19 CET
Photo: Photo credit: Francesco Ungaro / Unsplash + Nicolas Raymond / flickr
Why do I need to know hibernate?
Because hibernate is a wonderfully apt verb to describe the endurance test we face in the colder months in Germany, and it also has a scientific meaning that may come in handy when talking about the animal kingdom.
It can crop up anywhere from articles about pensioners escaping the German winter to poems by famous German authors.
What does it mean?
hibernate means, in some ways, exactly what it sounds like. It can be translated as “overwintering”, though a much more commonly used English equivalent would be “hibernating”.
Unlike the verb “to hibernate”, though, the German hibernate also has a much broader connotation. It can be used to describe simply getting through the winter, overcoming the winter months, or spending the winter months somewhere else.
With energy prices soaring, some people in Germany have been tempted to hibernate somewhere affordable and hot, like Greece, this year. Of course, you can also use the phrase more generally to discuss how some animals (and people) get through the winter months: by hibernating somewhere warm and cosy.
In his Sonnets to Orpheus, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke also used “überwintern” in a metaphorical sense to talk about overcoming something that feels impossible, and proving your own strength.
Be ahead of all goodbyes as if they were behind
you, like the winter that is just leaving.
For among winters is one so endless winter,
that, hibernating, your heart survives at all.
Anticipate every farewell. You must put it behind
you as this passing winter will pass.
Yet, among the winters one winter will come so endless
that overwintering it proves that your heart can survive.
Given how close hibernate is to overcome – which means “to overcome” – there is something beautifully poetic about using the word this way.
Use it like this:
I’m thinking about wintering in Spain this year.
I’m thinking about spending the winter in Spain this year.
Bears hibernate due to falling temperatures because they want to conserve energy.
Bears hibernate due to falling temperatures, because they want to save energy.