In Need Of An “Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher”?

What the hell is it?! Well, it’s a superfluous fancy kitchen implement dedicated to the highly complex task of cracking a boiled egg.

What’s wrong with bashing it with a teaspoon…? Nothing. Unless you’re a bored German (or possibly Swiss?) engineering student. I haven’t checked out its provenance, but who else would come up with a pointless gadget like this???

Then again, it’s a rather nice example of one of those long German words that people seem to be so fascinated with.

It was my brother who spotted the curious item in a shop window on our excursion to Landsberg

Let’s briefly dissect the word, for those of you who are interested in language stuff.

Eierschale = eggshell. You’ll have worked that part out by yourselves.

“Sollbruchstelle” is an engineering term, but pretty self-explanatory once you understand its components: Soll = should, Bruch = break, Stelle = point.

So, it’s the point at which a stressed material naturally breaks or is designed to break. Think of a KitKat – it snaps along the thinnest parts, i.e. between the fingers, rather than across them. Plenty of confectionery products and packaging are designed with such “Sollbruchstellen” to make life easier for consumers.

Verursacher = cause, i.e. an agent that causes something

To re-cap:

Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher = Eggshellshouldbreakpointcauser

Clear as mud?

Thought so.

You may also be interested in my specialist language blog, see here: http://multilingualbychoice.blogspot.com