German word of the day: Verpeilt

Local Germany

16-05-2025

Why do I need to know
verpeilt
?
Because this fun colloquial word describes a state we all get into on occasion - especially while leading increasingly busy and chaotic lives.
Plus, you can use it as either a verb or adjective, meaning you essentially get two words in one.
What does it mean?
The word
verpeilt
(pronounced
like this
) is generally used to describe people who seem very lost or out of it. In English, you might translate the adjective as dazed, confused, forgetful, or not with it.
If you skip your morning coffee and end up taking the wrong U-Bahn connection to work, that's certainly a
verpeilt
moment. Getting caught day-dreaming at a meeting and failing to hear your boss's question is another one.
Some people are simply a little bit ditsy and go through life seeming
verpeilt.
For others, this state of mind is brought about after sampling their own home-grown cannabis.
In laid-back Berlin, you may well encounter a member of staff who is
verpeilt
in this way when you visit your nearest Späti to pick up a parcel, or head to a bike shop run by Kreuzberg hippies.
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Where does it come from?
The origins of
verpeilt
can be found in maritime German, where the verb
peilen
means to measure the water depths and compass direction in order to get a sense of orientation. Naturally, whenever the prefix 'ver-' is involved, it indicates that something has gone terribly wrong: just think of
verlaufen
for getting lost, or
verkochen
for overcooking something.
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In this case, the sailors involved have clearly messed up their measuring tasks and may well have lost their bearings entirely. Just like someone going through their day in a bit of a daze, their ship is likely to end up bobbing aimlessly in the water or floating head-first into some rocks.
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If you're not feeling too
verpeilt
on any given day, you can also use
verpeilen
in its verb form to describe messing something up, getting confused or simply not managing to do something.
This can be handy as your confession is also your excuse: you didn't miss an appointment out of maliciousness - it's just been one of those days where you can't quite seem to find the "on" switch for your brain. Especially for us German learners, we all know how that feels on occasion.
Use it like this:
Er ist oft so verpeilt, dass er seinen eigenen Geburtstag vergisst.
He's often so spaced out that he forgets his own date of birth.
Ich habe den Termin komplett verpeilt. Könnten wir ihn verschieben?
I totally messed up / missed the appointment. Could we reschedule it?