Last week, while Joe was gone to the States, my friend Heidi called to check up on me. “Getting lots done?” she asked.
“Not really,” I said. “I should, but…”
“But it’s your innerer Schweinehund,” she finished. “Now, that’s a good word for you to know!”
Der Hund is a hound. Das Schwein is a pig. Put them together, and you get der Schweinehund, the pig-dog: a person who is a swine, or a jerk, or a stinker. But according to Linguee.com, most people nowadays don’t call others that insult, they reserve it for themselves–or at least for the part of themselves that won’t get off the couch and get to work. Der innere Schweinehund is our lack of willpower or our weaker self.