Dictionary

gemütlich en · ADJ

Pronunciation

• gəmütʹlĭᴋʜ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /ɡəˈmytlɪç/ (US)
• /ɡəˈmutlɪk/ anglicized
• /ɡəˈmyːtlɪç/ (Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from German gemütlich, from Middle High German gemüetlich, from gemüet (“mind, mentality”) + -lich (“-ly”), equivalent to Gemüt (“mind, soul”) + -lich (“-ly”). More at mood, -ly.

Meanings

1. Comfortable, cosy, pleasant.
   • [She] takes splendid care of her husband, and looks after their five-room apartment, with its gemütlich mélange of plump hassocks and squashy chairs and cream-colored lace window curtains. 1966, Truman Capote, In Cold Blood, section 4, page 251:
   • Judy told me of its charms because its gemütlich, nineteenth-century naïveté appealed strongly to her; either she was innocent in her tastes or else sophisticated in seeing in this humble little work delights and possibilities the other girls missed. 1972, Robertson Davies, The Manticore:
   • Underneath all the gemütlich verbs lurks a suggestion that some readers may find chilling: a vision of the “common good” so obvious to Deneen that it’s not up for debate or discussion. 2023 June 7, Jennifer Szalai, “When ‘Regime Change’ Means Returning America to an Idealized Past”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2023:
   • For several years, the center of her world has been the gemütlich studio of her Eastern European piano teacher, Mr. Bilderbach, and his wife, Anna. 2001 November 25, Hilton Als, “Unhappy Endings”, in The New Yorker, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2017:
2. Friendly, genial, cheerful, easy-going.
   • My mother, being gemütlich by nature, would, I believe, have loved to dispense with servants altogether. 1929, Robert Graves, chapter 2, in Good-Bye to All That, page 15:
   • The censors cut one in which Judd Hirsch, who plays Mr. Goldblum's gemutlich, Yiddish-spouting father, 1997 January 26, Judith Miller, “FILM: Making Money Abroad, And Also a Few Enemies”, in The New York Times, New York, archived from the original on 24 Jul 2020:

Forms

Relateds

Gemütlichkeit

Translations (15)

grc ἄνετος (cosy) · el άνετος (cosy) · eo komforta (cosy) · eo ujutna (cosy) · sk útulný (cosy) · sv gemytlig (cosy) · el αναπαυτικός (cosy) · grc ἀναπαυτικός (cosy) · eo gemuta (cosy) · nl gezellig (cosy) · pl przytulny (cosy) · sv hemtrevlig (cosy) · ru ую́тный (cosy) · de gemütlich (cosy) · da hyggelig (cosy)