literally: “summer sprouts” / meaning: freckles
Some might see them as a beauty flaw. Others, however, believe they look beautiful on the faces of celebrities like Emma Watson, Dakota Fanning, or Emily Ratajkowski. They all show their Sommersprossen quite openly on their Instagram pages.
The term derives from the fact that these tiny brownish skin marks usually appear on spots which get a lot of sun, like the face and shoulders. On some people, freckles fade so much in winter that you can’t even see them with the naked eye. They are called Sprossen because they literally sprout over your skin. The medical term “Ephelides” bears a similar reference to summer, being composed of Greek “epi” (at) and “helios” (Sun).
There was a time when freckles were considered so unpopular that some women tried to remove them with aggressive medications that contained mercury. Thank goodness we have learned to embrace them today. And for the rest, there are Instagram filters.
