Shitstorm

What it means

1. 1.

   A wave of public outrage, almost always online — a company, politician or influencer 'bekommt einen Shitstorm'. Narrower than the English word, which covers any chaotic disaster.

2. 2.

   The register is the surprise: German speakers do not hear the obscenity. It was named Anglicism of the Year 2011, appears in broadsheet headlines, and Angela Merkel used it in a public appearance in 2012 without anyone commenting on the language. Native English speakers in the room usually notice.

Examples with translations

• Die Kampagne hat einen ordentlichen Shitstorm ausgelöst.

  The campaign set off a proper storm of outrage.

• Nach dem Interview gab es einen Shitstorm auf Twitter.

  There was a pile-on on Twitter after the interview.

Where it comes from

Borrowed from English around 2010 but immediately narrowed to the online-outrage sense, which English did not have at the time and only partly developed later. The narrowing plus the total loss of vulgarity makes it a textbook case of what German does to English loans.

First attested: around 2010