What is a German compound noun?
German lends itself readily, enthusiastically even, to the formation of big words from smaller words. So a pedestrian is a Fußgänger, a ‘foot-goer’; a crossing is an Überweg, an ‘across-way’; and a pedestrian crossing is a Fußgängerüberweg. If this is borne in mind, unfamiliar nouns can often be translated by splitting them into their components: for example, Handschuh, perplexing at first sight, separates into the words for ‘hand’ and ‘shoe’, i.e. ‘glove’.
