Stau

Meaning

1. (masculine,strong) congestion, stagnancy of water or anything dammed or otherwise backed-up
2. (abbreviation,alt-of,especially,masculine,strong) Short for Verkehrsstau (“traffic jam”).
3. (masculine,strong) weir

Gender

♂️ Masculine

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʃtaʊ̯/

Etymology

18th century, from Low German Stau, from Middle Low German stouw, stouwe (“weir”), probably a back-formation from stouwen (“to stop, dam”), from Old Saxon *stōwa, from Proto-West Germanic *stōu, ultimately derived from Proto-Germanic *stōō (“place”). Cognate with Dutch stuw.
Alternatively the Dutch and Low German forms could be inherited from the Germanic noun (like English stow), but the sense makes a new deverbal derivation more likely.

Sentences

Nicht oft kommt es vor , dass man sich über einen Stau freut .

It is not often that you are happy about a traffic jam.