Omniglot Blog

Word of the day – etepetete

Here’s a nice German word I came across today: etepetete, which means fussy, finicky, pernickety. According to Wikipedia, this word is used mainly in northern Germany, particularly in Berlin. The equivalents in High German are eingebildet and geziert.

This word comes from the French être, peut-être, meaning ‘to be, perhaps’.

Example of usage
Du bist so etepetete = You are so prim