German word of the day: Ballern

The first time millennials hear this German word they may think of the lyrics of American rapper Skee-lo's 1995 hit "I Wish": "I wish I was a little bit taller, I wish I was a baller..."

But the German term 'ballern' , which sounds like this, doesn't actually originate with basketball or hip-hop culture, and its wide range of uses might surprise you.

What does ballern mean?

Type ballern into a translator app and it'll probably tell you it means "shoot" or "shooting". 

The Duden German dictionary offers three primary definitions for the term, which are basically; "shooting", "to hit with force", and "to make a loud popping or crashing noise".

The through-line here is in the sound, with the origin of the term thought to be as an onomatopoeia for a loud 'bang'. 

So to shoot blanks is "mit Platzpatronen ballern".

Or, when playing football, to kick the ball against the post is "den Ball gegen den Pfosten ballern". In sports, the term can also be applied to 'shooting' goals: "ins Tor ballern".

Finally, the term is used to describe the action of loud sounds happening. A fun way to say that thunder 'boomed', for example, would be "Donnerschläge ballerten".

More colloquial uses

All of that said, the dictionary is probably not the best place to look to understand this one, because ballern is arguably more commonly used as a slang term. 

In German rap music you can hear the term regularly. Sometimes for shooting a gun, but also for either 'going hard' or 'doing drugs' or both.

"Sich einen ballern" could refer to smoking a joint, for example, while "nase ballern" refers to snorting illicit substances.

Then comes "zugeballert", or being high or drunk out of one's mind.

There's also "verballern" for wasting things (like money). Or "wegballern" which literally would translate to "shooting [someone] down" but is used for having sex with someone.

As should be clear by now, the many possible uses of ballern make it a term ripe for wordplay.

The coffee package above uses the term in a clever a double entendre: On its own 'ballern' here seems to reference taking drugs, as if to imply 'this coffee is as strong as harder drugs'.

But taken with the above text, "der Kaffee muss ballern" could be understood as meaning "the coffee must hit".

Use it like this:

Zu Silvester ballert es wieder ordentlich.

On New Year's Eve, it will be loud again.

Ich ballere nicht auf der Straße mit meiner Waffe.

I don't shoot my gun on the street.

Am Freitag hat er sich mit den Jungs einen geballert.

On Friday, he smoked one with the boys.

Ich bin noch voll fertig vom wochenende, ich hab zu viel geballert.

I'm still totally wiped out from the weekend, I partied way too hard.