katzenjammer

[kat-suhn-jam-er]

noun

1. the discomfort and illness experienced as the aftereffects of excessive drinking; hangover.

2. uneasiness; anguish; distress.

3. uproar; clamor.

   His speech produced a public katzenjammer.

katzenjammer

/ ˈkætsənˌdʒæmə /

noun

1. a confused uproar

2. a hangover

Word History and Origins

Origin of katzenjammer¹

From German: “hangover,” literally, “wailing of cats,” equivalent to Katzen (plural of Katze cat ( def. ) ) + Jammer “discomfort,” Old High German jāmar (noun and adjective) “misery; sad”; yammer; katzenjammer def. 1 was first recorded in 1840–50; and katzenjammer defs. 2 and katzenjammer 3 in 1895–1900

Word History and Origins

Origin of katzenjammer¹

German, literally: hangover, from Katzen cats + jammer misery, wailing

Example Sentences

One only need look at you, Moritz!——I don't know what a katzenjammer's like.

From Project Gutenberg

Still, I continued as of old, and thought nothing of it except as the regular katzenjammer—to be expected.

From Project Gutenberg

In an orchestra of eighty men there is inevitably at least one man with a sore thumb, or bad kidneys, or a brutal wife, or katzenjammer—and one is enough.

From Project Gutenberg

Should he find a man suffering with katzenjammer he would pronounce him a "suspect."

From Project Gutenberg

An attack of katzenjammer—such as is scarcely ever spared worldly people of forty—threw a sobering shadow upon this event.

From Project Gutenberg