25 hilarious German Compound Nouns

With plenty of grammatical rules (and exceptions) to get to grips with, German is known for being a challenging and complex language.

So, for a little something different, we’ve complied some of the most entertaining common compound nouns (where two words have simply been stuck together to create a new one)…some of which are more literal than others.

German Word	Literal Translation	English Word
das Drachenfutter	dragon fodder	apology gift (given to a spouse)
das Erdferkel	earth piglet	aardvark
das Faultier	lazy animal	sloth
die Fledermaus	flutter mouse	bat
das Flugzeug	fly thing	aeroplane
der Glückspilz	lucky mushroom	lucky devil
die Glühbirne	glow pear	light bulb
die (pl) Handschuhe	hand shoes	gloves
der Kummerspeck	sorrow bacon	excess weight gained from comfort eating
der Ohrwurm	ear worm	catchy tune
das Meerschweinchen	little sea pig	guinea pig
die Nacktschnecke	naked snail	slug
die Naschkatze	treat cat	person with a sweet tooth
der  Pechvogel	bad luck bird	unlucky person
der Regenschirm	rain shield	umbrella
der Scheinwerfer	shine thrower	headlight
die Schildkröte	shield toad	tortoise
das Stachelschwein	spike pig	porcupine
der Staubsauger	dust sucker	vacuum
das Stinktier	stink animal	skunk
der Tintenfisch	ink fish	Squid
der Vokuhila (vorne kurz, hinten lang)	short front, long back	mullet
die Warteschlange	waiting snake	queue
die Wunderkerze	wonder candle	sparkler
das Zahnfleisch	tooth meat	gum

Sources:

http://www.uberlin.co.uk/the-hilarity-of-compounds/

https://lingualista.wordpress.com/2014/12/02/funny-german-compound-words/