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I was also confused by a friend who came back from New York and referred to someone as a mensch. It means human being or person in German.

• ido 16y ago
  Apparently it means "whore" in Austrian slang [1]. I'm not a native Austrian, but was told several years ago by a friend that I shouldn't use that word as people might misunderstand what I meant by it... Might be a Tyrol thing tho. [1] http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Mensch.html http://www.dict.cc/deutsch-englisch/Mensch.html
  • ahoyhere 16y ago
    Um, sure that's not somebody pulling somebody's leg? The slogan for DM is "Hier bin ich Mensch" and I'm pretty sure they don't mean "whore." If it also means "human" and "wow!" I can't see how I can go wrong. FTR, I asked my husband, who is Wiener.
    • xtho 16y ago
      With the right intonation & context it could also mean "stupid woman/girl" but not whore.
      • ido 16y ago
        I think that was probably what my friend meant, "whore" was dict.cc's idea.
  • steipete 16y ago
    As with many things in austria, it totally depends how you say it. Written, it means "human", "good person" in general. Only if you say it in a bad context, with slang, it means sth bad. (but not really whore... more like crazy person) "de oide is so a ménsch!" vs "er ist wirklich ein guter mensch."
  • schmidp 16y ago
    I'm from austria and I've never heard "mensch" used in a negative context. As a native german speaker I absolutely read it as positively as it was intended.
    • ahoyhere 16y ago
      I'm chalking it up to the fact that Wienerisch can make anything sound dirty. ;)