German word for a cold

There are several thousand pages of linguistic literature on «quirky (dative) subjects» in Germanic languages (Icelandic tops it all, but German is clear second). Nearly all of the verbs where the «subject» is in dative are something about feelings, impressions etc. Jana gave a good example: «Mir ist unklar» — «I am confused» or «it is unclear to me». Another one is «Mir ist kalt» — «I am cold» or literally «It is cold to me», or «Mir gefällt…» — «I like…», literally «… pleases me».

One thing they have in common is that it is not a conscious action of mine, i.e. I am not the agent of my being cold, rather the «experiencer». But it remains highly arbitrary, so I guess you have to learn them one by one, there are a lot of verbs that are comparable from the meaning side, but take a normal nominative subject («Ich bin…»). Also, there is some kind of shift going on: take the verb «frieren»: Today you can say either «Ich friere» or «Mir friert», meaning the same thing. The version with «mir» is the older one.

Middle English used to have the same kind of constructions, by the way.

You have to distinguish between personal adjectives and impersonal verbs.

Mir ist es zu warm. (I can’t stand the warmth/It’s too warm for me)
Ich bin zu warm. (My temperature is too high)

I once heard that «warm» also can refer to someone’s sexuality in German. Would that be so if you were to say «er ist warm» or something similar?

I once heard that «warm» also can refer to someone’s sexuality in German. Would that be so if you were to say «er ist warm» or something similar?

Er ist warm. = He’s gay.

Referring to Whodunit’s excellent posting —

You have to distinguish between personal adjectives and impersonal verbs.
Mir ist warm. (I’m sweating)
Ich bin warm. (I have a temperature)

— and to the revival of this thread —

–- I’d say that “if the feeling is subjective” (cf. Whodunit’s terminology), it can also have the meaning “to be horny” (which seems to be deleted from modern dictionaries).

The semantic jump from “horny” to “homosexual” must be a relatively recent development! (I am talking about a time span of about 40 years).

There are several thousand pages of linguistic literature on «quirky (dative) subjects» in Germanic languages (Icelandic tops it all, but German is clear second). […]One thing they have in common is that it is not a conscious action of mine, i.e. I am not the agent of my being cold, rather the «experiencer». But it remains highly arbitrary[!], so I guess you have to learn them one by one

–- and be aware of any change in usage.

​

–- I’d say that “if the feeling is subjective” (cf. Whodunit’s terminology), it can also have the meaning “to be horny” (which seems to be deleted from modern dictionaries).

The semantic jump from “horny” to “homosexual” must be a relatively recent development! (I am talking about a time span of about 40 years).
–- and be aware of any change in usage.

​

Not quite. The meaning of warm as gay is already documented in Grimms Deutsches Wörterbuch (where it is explained as päderast) while the alleged meaning horny is not.
For I am horny you would rather say Ich bin heiß.

Mir ist kalt (I am cold). (I’m freezing = Ich friere/mich friert)
Ich bin kalt (correct only if you are dead for a while). (I’m cold-hearted = kaltherzig)

Mir ist warm (= I feel warm). (I’m sweating ==> you can feel warm without sweating. You can even feel hot without sweating, for example in a dry heat)
Ich bin warm (= I feel warm). (I have a temperature = Ich habe Fieber)

Ich bin zu warm (I do not find this sentence correct German). (My temperature is too high = Ich habe Fieber)

Ich bin schlecht (= ich bin ein schlechter Mensch). (I’m bad [

at school

])

Mir ist schwindlich. (I feel dizzy) ==> schwindlig

If you say Ich bin kalt it means ‘I am frigid’.
If you say Ich bin warm it means ‘I am homosexual’.
And if you say Ich bin heiß it means ‘I am horny’!»

I disagree completely. I find it quite difficult to think of any situation in which I would use these three-word-expressions to express in German the meaning as given in English (Ich bin kalt/Susanne ist kalt, Ich bin warm/Peter ist warm, ich bin heiss/Lukas ist heiss). It is not idiomatic language.

In portuguese we have two verbs that separate the different meanings of the verb «to be» / «sein». One is used to say the feelings, place, situation, feelings we are in — I am here, i am (feeling) hot, i am married, etc. All these use the verb «estar». The other is used when speaking about the thing / person itself, it’s characteristics — I am hot, i am a human, i am kind, etc, and for these we use «ser». It’s the same in spanish for those more familiar with it.

Perhaps it’s something similar in german with the mir ist and ich bin?

You have to distinguish between personal adjectives and impersonal verbs.

Let’s have a look at Hutschi’s examples. They can mostly always used personally and impersonally with another meaning:

Mir ist kalt. (I’m freezing)
Ich bin kalt. (I’m cold-hearted)

Mir ist warm. (I’m sweating)
Ich bin warm. (I have a temperature)

Mir ist es zu warm. (I can’t stand the warmth/It’s too warm for me)
Ich bin zu warm. (My temperature is too high)

Mir ist schlecht. (I feel sick)
Ich bin schlecht. (I’m bad [at school])

Mir ist langweilig. (I’m bored)
Ich bin langweilig. (I’m boring)

Mir ist schwindlich. (I feel dizzy)
Ich bin schwindlig.

So, you always have to decide if some feeling is subjective or impersonal. If I say «Ich bin langweilig,» I’m referring to my own character. If I use «Mir ist langweilig,» I’m speaking of my environment.

That’s a really helpful post Whodunit, thanks.

In portuguese we have two verbs that separate the different meanings of the verb «to be» / «sein». One is used to say the feelings, place, situation, feelings we are in — I am here, i am (feeling) hot, i am married, etc. All these use the verb «estar». The other is used when speaking about the thing / person itself, it’s characteristics — I am hot, i am a human, i am kind, etc, and for these we use «ser». It’s the same in spanish for those more familiar with it.

Perhaps it’s something similar in german with the mir ist and ich bin?

I am also skeptical that this should be compared. The predicate kalt sein is the same in both sentences ich bin kalt and mir ist kalt. It is the adverbial mir which changes the meaning of the sentence.

The addition of an adverbial dative of the person changes to basic meaning of the sentence from a statement the objective state of affairs to a subjective statement about the person’s condition, feelings or opinions. This applies also to sentence with an explicit subject. The fact that Es ist kalt does not have an “true” subject is circumstantial and not essential to constructs under discussion here. E.g.

• Ob er kommt oder zuhause bleibt ist egal = Whether he will come or stay at home doesn’t matter.
• Ob er kommt oder zuhause bleibt ist mir egal. = Whether he will come or stay at home doesn’t matter to me = I don’t care whether he will come or stay at home.

(Note: In both cases, the clause ob er kommt oder zuhause constitutes the subject of the main sentence.)

Hence, the sentence Mir ist kalt should be analysed as a subjective rendering of the sentence es ist kalt which is a statement about the state of the world and not a statement about particular object or person. This becomes clearer, if you use the equivalent formulation Es ist mir kalt. (The only reason why Es ist kalt cannot be shortened to *ist kalt is that a German sentence cannot start with a verb unless it is a question or an imperative.)By contrast, the sentence Ich bin kalt is a statement about an concrete object or person and not about the world in general, i.e. ich.