Expert: Cornelia Neumann - 6/29/2009

Question
Dear Cornelia,

Please could you refresh my memory? I'm pretty certain there's a suffix you can stick on the end of words to give the meaning of "hopeless with/at", e.g. Computer..., Sprachen..., etc.

It may well be wrong, but somehow Müffel comes to mind, so Computermüffel, Sprachenmüffel etc.?

Much obliged,

Simon  

Answer
Hello Simon,

if it's someone really hopeless I'd actually go with -idiot, if the situation allows for this kind of language. :-)
The word you're remembering is -muffel, which is not so much a person who simply can't do this or that but more one who is neither all that interested (90%) nor all that talented (10%).
A Computermuffel would not understand much about computers but would also not be bothered enough by this to try and find out how they work.

HTH,
Cornelia