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I once read a nice term that's used to describe friends that you've known ever since you were very little. It was something like "Sandbeckenkamaraden", but not exactly. Can anyone help me out here?

Henry Firth
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    The most common term for a childhood friend is actually Schulfreund, though that is apparently not what you're looking for. – leftaroundabout Jun 21 '21 at 17:45
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    You can actually say ''school friend'' in English, although it's probably more common ''old school friend'' for clarity. – Tom Jun 22 '21 at 15:49
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    and then there is also "Jugendfreund" which means friend of (so.) youth... – John Smith Jun 22 '21 at 18:04

1 Answers1

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The word you are looking for is Sandkastenfreund.

guidot
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user49093
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    I know Sandkastenliebe for married couples in sentences like Er hat seine Sandkastenliebe geheiratet. – Ralf Joerres Jun 21 '21 at 11:56
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    We've got something like Sandkastenfreund and all that English speakers have in mind when they talk about uniquely useful German words is Schadenfreude, it's a shame really :( – Sebastian Koppehel Jun 21 '21 at 20:45
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    Schadenfreude ist die ehrlichste Freude. The word shows a degree of self awareness that is not universal. – gnasher729 Jun 21 '21 at 21:06
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    Other related terms would be Kindergartenfreund and Schulfreund, depending on the age at which you've met. – B Fuchs Jun 21 '21 at 22:15
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    @SebastianKoppehel; There are a lot of native German expressions in common use in English which fit better than English equivalents: Kindergarten, Doppelganger, Wunderkind, Wanderlust (that one is a beauty). Zeitgeist (overused but precise). Ersatz (although it has a connotation of something inferior in English). You sometimes hear Dummkopf instead of "blockhead", Zugzwang in chess - difficult to find another word that is equally concise. – John D Jun 22 '21 at 04:19
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    Never heard that word, it might not be universally known. – Konrad Rudolph Jun 22 '21 at 08:19
  • @JohnD Kindergarten when used in American English does not have the same meaning it has in German. – Maeher Jun 22 '21 at 09:28
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    @John D Doppelgänger has an umlaut by the way, I'm sure you knew that though. Ansatz is very regularly used in mathematical English. I don't think Zugzwang is very widely used in English as far as I know. – Tom Jun 22 '21 at 15:47
  • C.S. Lewis (who also knew something of English) liked sehnsucht which in his context basically meant a deep longing, so deep it was hard to describe, almost a longing for a longing -- if interested, please see "Surprised by Joy" etc. – JosephDoggie Jun 22 '21 at 16:13
  • Ansatz - educated guess. I hadn't heard that one, thanks. I suspect Doppelgaenger got the usual ruthless simplification - what's that extra "e" doing there? Get rid of it ! – John D Jun 24 '21 at 10:02
  • Is it always the case in German that a vowel v with an umlaut can be converted to "ve" without the umlaut? I watch a lot of German/Scandinavian films and occasionally there is a sentence which needs no translation - it still makes sense in English after 1300 years of separation -- that's cool. True, zugzwang is restricted to chess. but every chess player knows what it means. – John D Jun 24 '21 at 10:28
  • I'm fascinated by the similarities between English and German. There was a shift from "d" to "t" in German after the invasions of Britain eg mittel/middle, tuer/door, but they are still close enough for government work. Brueder/brother seems to be against the trend. – John D Jun 24 '21 at 10:41