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snow covered mountain

Berg

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Adding the German noun Berg, meaning mountain, to the end of an English noun can create a new English word meaning “a mountain of,” as in iceberg. More recently the problem of fat build-up and the resulting obstruction in urban drains and sewers has given rise to the term fatberg, which is itself being imported into German as it uniquely describes a new phenomenon. Alleged surpluses of subsidised EU agricultural goods could also lead to English terms such as the butterberg, and the German language does, in fact, already have the established term Butterberg.

In wartime 1917, the current British royal family actually chose to remove the German word berg from their family name, adopting Mountbatten instead of Battenberg. A battenberg remains a popular kind of multi-coloured sponge cake in the UK, featuring a sweet, cream-coloured marzipan outer layer.

The choice of image for this article will come as no surprise to Wolfgang Ambros fans.