Gemütlichkeit
Alternative forms
Origin
Borrowing from de Gemütlichkeit.
Full definition of Gemütlichkeit
Noun
Gemütlichkeit
- the state or fact of being gemütlich; middle-class niceness or cosiness, hospitality
- John never got over contrasting her taste in clothes coupled with her experiments in domestic interiors and gemutlichkeit. — Paul Horgan, "Fault of Angels", 1933
- ''... and Vincent Sheean "the king of gemutlichkeit". — George Thayer, "The Farther Shore of Politics", Simon and Schuster, 1967
- ... where’d they all come from, these gray hustlers, what shadows in the Gemütlichkeit of the day were harboring them? — Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow", 1973
- Mr. Corde believes in gemutlichkeit more than in public welfare. — Saul Bellow, "Dean's December", 1982
- Once the nation's largest producer of beer, it still is known as a brewing capital, and is famous for its gemutlichkeit (friendly hospitality). — Brenda Warner Rotzoll, "Milwaukee: A Metropolitan Playground Within Reach", Chicago Tribune: 951112: TRAVEL; Pg. 1, 1995
Usage notes
Both the German spelling Gemütlichkeit and the anglicized gemutlichkeit (sometimes gemuetlichkeit) are found, with the anglicized form dropping the initial upper case and the umlaut. The mixed forms *Gemutlichkeit or *gemütlichkeit (making one such change) are considered spelling errors.