seicht

German

Etymology

From Middle High German sīhte (low, shallow); cognate with sinken.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /zaɪ̯çt/ (prescriptive standard)
  • IPA(key): /saɛ̯çt/ (Austria)
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪ̯çt

Adjective

seicht (strong nominative masculine singular seichter, comparative seichter, superlative am seichtesten)

  1. shallow (of water only)
    Synonyms: untief, flach
  2. (figuratively) simple, light, having little depth (e.g. of a book)
    Synonym: flach

Usage notes

  • Like in English, Seicht is more likely to be used when the shallowness of a given book or film is intended (as e.g. in a romantic comedy), while flach tends to mean that something fails to reach the depth to which it aspires or which would be expected of it.

Declension

References

  1. Friedrich Kluge (1883) “seicht”, in John Francis Davis, transl., Etymological Dictionary of the German Language, published 1891

Further reading

  • seicht” in Duden online
  • seicht” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
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