Flustered to the point of incompetence. [adjective]
Have you ever
been supervised so closely, nagged so incessantly, watched so
intently by a critic, spouse, or boss that your performance
grew sloppier as
you went along? In English, you might say you were "flustered"
or "jittery."
In Yiddish, you would say you were "farblonged." Neither
of these words,
however, puts any blame on the unwanted supervisorial attention
that brings
on this nervousness and disintegration of composure in the first
place. The
German fisselig (rhymes with "thistle fish") conveys
a temporary state of
inexactitude and sloppiness that is elicited by another person's
nagging. It
is the precise answer to the unkind question "What the
heck is wrong with
you today?"
Everyone has
been in a classroom in which the teacher managed to intimidate
students into speechlessness, whether or not they knew the material.
Spouses
trying to teach their mate how to drive an automobile often
exhibit a streak
of this trait. Call these not-so-helpful advisers fisseligers.
If someone
who has driven you over the edge of your ability to cope then
asks you what
is wrong, reply, "I'm fisseliged." Your tormenter
either will be stunned
into puzzled silence or else will feed you your straight line
by asking,
"What is that supposed to mean?"
From They
Have a Word for It: A Lighthearted Lexicon of Untranslatable
Words
& Phrases Howard Rheingold (Sarabande Books, 2000)
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