Is there a name for this specific concept? Where somebody invents something (to do them good) but then that thing turns around and backfires on them?

        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          12
          ·
          6 months ago

          There’s probably a German word for the concept that there is a German word for everything.

          • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            arrow-down
            1
            ·
            edit-2
            6 months ago

            Indeed - for OP’s purposes, I came up with this (but I don’t speak German, so it may make no sense at all): Erfindungselbstfehlzündung

            Google seems to like it well enough!

            Or better, Erfindungdererfinderselbstfehlzündung:

              • SanguinePar@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                edit-2
                6 months ago

                Well, not with that attitude… ;-)

                Nah, fair enough - as I said, I can’t speak German, so was just mucking about trying to get something that might be plausible. Thanks for clarifying.

            • elvith@feddit.de
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              6 months ago

              The first one kinda works, but I think it’d be more clear, when used without “selbst”/self, as this would be read to reference the invention instead of the inventor.

              On the other hand, that then feels like “yeah, it didn’t work. The invention misfired and is crap”. Maybe “Erfindungserschafferzerstörer”? (Invention’s creator destructor) but that sounds off, too.

              There’s not really a word that I can come up with that really conveys this meaning. There’s a german saying “wer Andern eine Grube gräbt, fällt selbst hinein” (he, who digs a hole for others, will fall into it by itself). Then there’s the humorous “Rohrkrepierer” (along the lines of “died in the barrel”) which basically means something like “dead on arrival” / that went wrong and didn’t work. So it’d be probably something that references one of those, which would make it work culturally?

          • stoy@lemmy.zip
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            6 months ago

            Hey!

            German is not the only language to use compound words!

            Swedish is another good example of a language with compound words.

            The best compound word I can come up with is “Uppfinnarmissöde”

            Uppfinnar - Inventor

            missöde - misadventure or mishap

            So “uppfinnarmissöde” would translate to either “inventor mishap” or “inventor misadventure”, I prefer the latter as it kinda rhymes when you say it.

  • CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    31
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    6 months ago

    Also not sure about a name, but in Greek mythology, there’s Daedalus. He built a massive maze, which was then used against him to imprison him & his son. Daedalus crafted wings out of feathers & beeswax to escape the island of Crete, but his son Icarus flew too close to the sun. Melting the wax, destroying the wings, and drowning in the sea.

  • Zier@fedia.io
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    ·
    6 months ago

    Let’s call it “Keuriged”. The Keurig guy had so much regret on his polluting invention. Not sure if there is an actual term for this though.

    • Timecircleline@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      6 months ago

      I think Segwayed is better because James Heseldon, inventor of the Segway, died after riding a Segway off a cliff.

      Edit: apologies! Apparently he didn’t invent the Segway, just owned the company

      • Sizzler@slrpnk.net
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        6 months ago

        Didn’t own the company just the sole British distribution rights

        edit to add: He lived on the south coast, used and enjoyed the product, and was moving out of the way for a pedestrian on a narrow path and went backwards over the cliff edge. A tragedy that doesn’t belong in this thread.

        • CouncilOfFriends@slrpnk.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          6 months ago

          Not to be confused with segued, which is ‘to move easily and without interruption from one piece of music, part of a story, subject, or situation to another’.

    • neidu2@feddit.nl
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 months ago

      Which is, ironically enough, NOT like rain on your wedding day, or a free ride when you’ve already paid.

    • Bizarroland@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      6 months ago

      It would only be ironic if it were a lifesaving device, for instance, if the creator of the defibrillator went into cardiac arrest by an accidental misfiring of the defibrillator on him.

      Irony requires a reasonable expectation of an opposite outcome.

      A solar eclipse happening on a cloudy day is not ironic, it’s merely unfortunate. A song about things claiming to be ironic actually containing nothing that will qualify as ironic is ironic.

  • Ð Greıt Þu̇mpkin@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    6 months ago

    The Frankenstein Effect I believe, though that can also be used to describe a human extinction event caused by an invention of some kind.

  • fishos@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    A “Thomas Midgley Jr.”

    Alfred Nobel might be considered a runner up, but I feel he recovered his reputation. That and I don’t think anyone but himself really was upset with the path his invention took.

    I know you wanted a word, but I nominate “Midgley” to be the new word for that. “To midgley something” is to attempt to create something of value that instead only makes things worse. It’s an improvement in the negative direction.