Literally: “pane paste” / an euphemism mispronunciation for Scheiße
You were on the phone for just one moment too long—and the pizza in the oven is pitch black already. “Schei…” it screams out of you.
At that moment, you realize that the unlikable rich kid you are babysitting is looking at you with big eyes. As if he’s already looking forward to telling his parents what bad words the babysitter has brought into their noble house. So you just manage to keep your temper and end your saying with “…benkleister!” These kinds of intentional mispronunciations of swearwords are present in other languages as well—just think of the English “shoot!” or “sugar!”
The word Scheibenkleister is all the more interesting because it is only used for this particular purpose today. The term was originally used to describe a doughy flour soup. However, the Scheibenkleister has carried its current, much more useful meaning since the early 19th century. If paste is not your type of thing, the word Scheibenhonig (“comb honey”) serves the exact same purpose. So next time you burn a pizza and don’t want to sound vulgar, you have one more option to choose from.
