It is: backpfeifengesicht.
It is pronounced: back-FIFE-en-guh-zeekst.
It means: a face badly in need of a punching (roughly).
Usage: Did you hear what Pat Robertson said about Haiti? Man, has he got a backpfeifengesicht.
Trust the Germans to come up with a single word that perfectly sums up a more complex concept.
(And thanks to Mike G. for teaching me the word.)
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The Austrian word for this is “Watschengesicht”, where “Watschen” is the same word as “Backpfeife”.
There are also useful things, like “am Watschenbaum rütteln” (shake the slapping tree), “spazierenwatschen” (to take someone for a walk by slapping them along in front of oneself), and so on.
It’s as if you just opened up a world of slapping-based words for me.
There’s always “dummkopf”–a word my dad used to describe bad drivers when I was growing up. (Noun meaning stupid person, dolt.)
This post is so good that I shared it at work. Let’s see if it gets you any more fans.
I *would* say it’s the best thing ever, but man, Gunther’s reply.
Mm, from what I’ve read on him on Wikipedia, he’s had a backpfeifengesicht for some time now.