overwordExplorer
GERMAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

petzen.

to tattle, snitch

6 characters2 syllables approx.Deutsch language

Meaning & usage

verb/ˈpɛt͡sn̩/
  1. to tattle, snitch

    ambitransitive · derogatory · weak
Where this word comes from

Uncertain. Attested since the end of the 18th century, emerged in Halle, Germany, spread to all major German university cities by mid-19th century. Perhaps from Rotwelsch petzen, pezetten (“to report to the police, to betray”), from Yiddish [script needed] (Pezet), [script needed] (Peizaddik, “police”), from [script needed] (pe, “p (letter name)”) + [script needed] (zadik, “z (letter name)”) ("pz" for Polizei). Alternatively from Petze (“she-dog”), hence also the agent noun Petze (“tattler”).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.