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{{wiktionary}}
'''Geier''' is a ] word for "]". Geier is also a ] and ].


'''Geier''' may refer to:
The disputed ] origins of the word ''Geier'' have confounded ] usage of the term in poetry, literature, biblical scholarship, and English-language ] and ] entries, while spawning several literary and philological misunderstandings and controversies. The surname Geier also has different and somewhat inconsistent origins, traditions and meanings, and the ] associated with the surname likewise is confused.


* ], a surname of German origin (includes a list)
==Ornithology==
* The ], 17th century Native American group
{{TOC right}}


==Places==
The modern German term '']'' is generally recognized as referring to two distinct families of carrion-eating bird whose range includes the whole of Europe and the western part of Asia. Geier refers both to birds from the ] ] (Aegypiinae) and the ] ] (Cathartidae).
*], Antarctica
*], Austria


==Fiction==
In English usage, the word Geier has been associated with both the ] and the ] although neither is synonymous with “Geier”. For example, "gyrfalcon" is thought to come from French ''gerfaucon'', which is written in mediaeval Latin as ''gyrofalco'', but the first part of the word also is said to come from Old High German ''gîr'' (now ''Geier''), as in "vulture" The modifier, "Gyr", “Gier” or "Geier" preceding the word "falcon" is now thought to be a reference to the large size of the bird rather than to its genus or family, but it has not always been so regarded.
*''Der Geier'' (in English '']''), a short story by Franz Kafka
*], a character in the television show ''Bones''


==Naval==
Earlier inaccurate and misleading conflations of these disparate terms resulted from reliance on imprecise Biblical translations and metaphorical impressions rather than on direct anatomical or behavioral observations of the bird species themselves. In the ] of the ], in ] xi, 13; ] xiv, 17), the term "Gyrfalcon" referred to an unclean bird, most likely an ], rather than to the modern ], and did not refer to a ] or an ]. These Biblical references to "Gyrfalcon" (or sometimes "Gierfalcon") probably were a misinterpretation of a Hebrew term more properly translated either as ] or ], the latter also known as the "lamb-vulture" or the "bone-breaker vulture", or historically as the "bone crusher" or ]).
*'']'', 1916–1917, a British freighter captured by German navy
*{{SMS|Geier}}, a German cruiser
*'']'', a German patrol boat
*The ''FRG Geier'', a ], sold to Greece, and renamed ''Tyfon''
*Geier, the nickname for an experimental ]


==See also==
This ] confusion has produced ] confusion, as well. Some authorities actually proclaimed uncertainty whether the Geier is a vulture or an eagle, and older dictionaries used the terms “Geier”, “Gyrfalcon” and “Lammergeier”, almost interchangeably, e.g. Webster's 1913 Dictionary).
*]
Poets and others often assumed that the term '''Geier''' refers to a form of eagle or falcon, rather than a vulture, a matter that was commented upon in the article by Harriet C. Stanton, ''Poets and Birds: a Criticism'', The Atlantic monthly. / Volume 52, Issue 311, September 1883. *
*]
Even some encyclopedia writers adopted the view that the ] "is more closely allied with the eagles than with the vultures", as in the 11th Edition of ].
*]
*{{intitle|Geier}}


{{Disambiguation}}
Taxonomic confusion may have resulted from the physical appearance of the ]. Because the head of the ], unlike most other vultures, is feathered rather than naked, it bears a resemblance to the ] or ]. “Gyrfalcon” is also sometimes rendered as "Geir eagle", as in *), although in modern usage a ] is a member of the ] family and is not an ]. The ], another true vulture species recently recategorized as critically endangered, also was described as having a distinctly "eagle-like bearing" in contrast to most other vulture species.

The modern taxonomic distinction between the families of ] or ]s and the families of ] should eliminate any uncertainty over the respective meanings of the term ''Geier''. The Egyptian vulture (''Neophron percnopterus'') and the Lammergeier (''Gypaetus barbatus'') are true carrion-eating vultures. The term "Geier" should not be applied to the modern ] (''Falco rusticolus''); the Gyrfalcon is a distinct species of ] (the largest of the falcon family), and is not a vulture.

==Surname==

Geier is a common surname in ] and ] people. It is also found as a ] surname, and as ]n surname. The latter probably is associated with German emigration to Russia in the 17th and 18th centuries. The surname Geier is often considered to be interchangeable with ], although some sources ascribe a different origin and meaning to the two surnames.

Many using the surname ''Geier'' share an oral history attributing its origins to a heroic band of peasant villagers who climbed high to an aerie and clubbed to death a gigantic raptor (a ''Geier'') who had been stealing and eating human babies from their village. See ]

As with the surname "Geier", the surname "Geyer" is primarily associated with the word "vulture". This is often used in a pejorative sense, however. When affixed to a ] family, the surname "Geier" is thought by some to have a slightly different meaning. The ] word ''Geyer'' means "peddler", and it is assumed that when last names became mandatory in Europe, the surname Geier was imposed upon Jewish peasants as a deprecatory label connoting a scheming merchant who takes advantage of the cupidity of others, i.e., a "vulture". The word "Geier" more recently has evolved as a "derogatory term for persons from the Middle East."

A significant number of ] people with the surname Geier are found in ] and across the ], the ]an antecedents of which are unknown. As with the surnames of many African American families (See Dunaway, Wilma A., The African American Family in Slavery and Emancipation (Cambridge University Press, 2003), pp. 259-60), it is likely that the names were adopted from a European American slaveowner by the name of "Geier", but none has been identified to date.

==Coats of Arms==

The etymological confusion associated with ornithological use of the term "Geier" also has affected family ] and traditions concerning ] ]s of those bearing the '''Geier''' surname. Some ]s and ] associate the Geier surname with the eagle (as in the "Eagle's Nest" coat of arms) and with a peasant ] concerning a baby-stealing ] in a ] ]n or ] ]. *]. Others associate the surname with the carrion-eating, bone-crushing variety of vulture. *.
See also *. In modern times, it is not unusual for the vulture in family coats of arms or ] to be rendered as a ] ] of a slumping and sad-sack ] rather than a ] or ] with "the bearing of an ]."

==Place name==
The word '''Geier''' spelled "]" is a place name for a village in ] by that name. An ]n town known as ] follows the preferred spelling of Geier and sometimes is associated with the place of origin of the ] Geier, as well. The castle of ], in ] has been used to stage dramas commemorating its famous first occupant, but has not otherwise conferred place name recognition on the ]n region south of ] where it is located.

==Literary History"==

The ornithological and etymological confusions posed by the name or word "Geier" have led to some interesting and sometimes comical confusions in literary uses of the term, as well.

==== Walter Scott====
The setting of the romantic novel by ], '']'', or ''The Maiden Of The Mist'' set in Saxony, is more likely the ] mountain known as "Geierstein", rather than the Saxon village ] typically associated with the origins of the name Geier or Geyer. The Austrian town of Geiersberg im Innkreis bears a similar name, but most of the novel takes place in ] rather than Austria.

====Sigmund Freud====
A celebrated episode in the history of ] has been attributed to ]'s misreading of the ] word for "kite" as "vulture", mistranslating it as the German word "Geier" and building upon it a somewhat pornographic interpretation of one of ]'s dreams. <ref>Coco, J.M. (2002). Freud, Leonardo Da Vinci, and The Vulture's Tail: A Refreshing Look At Leonardo's Sexuality. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 50:1375-1383</ref>

====Florian Geier====
The most common references to the word Geier in literary history have been associated with ], also known as Florian Geier, as discussed in the next section. Aside from his prominent place in ], '']'' (1850), Florian Geier was also the problematic hero of one of ]'s major plays, the historical drama entitled ''Florian Geyer'', also known as ''Florian Geier'', published in 1896. The German folk anthem, ''"Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen" ("We are the Black Band of Geyer")'' is now a radical union hymn in the United States and Australia. *

====Franz Kafka====
]'s tale "Der Geier", in English ], may derive symbolic meaning from many of these connotations. It was published after Freud's 1910 publication on Leonardo and the vulture, but before the 1926 revelation that Leonardo's dream had been mistranslated in Freud's interpretation.

====Friedrich Nietzsche and Richard Wagner====
The German philosopher ], famously suggested that the archetypically Aryan and anti-Semitic composer, ], was of Jewish ancestry, and Wagner himself may have believed this. In a footnote to his essay, ''Der Fall Wagner'', entitled ''Nachtschrift'', published as a foreword to Wagner's autobiography, Nietzsche made the comment, "Ein Geyer ist beinahe schon ein Adler" ("A vulture is almost an eagle"), essentially asserting that Wagner's biological father was actually his mother's second husband, the presumptively Jewish actor and playwright, ], rather than his putative and presumptively Aryan father, ]. This example of the Jewish connotations of the name in its alternate spelling as ''Geyer'' is discussed by Roger Hollinrake in ''The Title-Page of Wagner's 'Mein Leben','' published in Music & Letters, Vol. 51, No. 4 (Oct., 1970), pp. 415-422. See also Silk, M.S. & ], ''Nietzsche on Tragedy'' (Cambridge University Press, 1981), p.202.

==People==
*], a ]n nobleman who sided with the peasants in the ] in the early 16th century
*], American baselball players
===Ships===
Several ] of German registry have borne the name Geier. These included:

*The ''Geier'' (1916-1917) a captured British freighter named ''St. Theodore'', which was scuttled by the Germans near the end of World War I. .
*The SMS ''Geier'', a German sloop which put into the then-neutral United States port at ], at the onset of ], but was seized by a crew from the United States cruiser ] upon the United States' entering the war, and after a protracted international legal dispute, re-commissioned in the ] as the USS ''Schurz'' and eventually sunk following a collision off the coast of North Carolina.
*The ''Geier'', a German patrol boat carrying a crew of 40, currently in the 7th Fast Patrol Boat (FPB) Squadron and scheduled to be sold to the ].

===Other usages===

*]
*], a small group of ] supposed to have been encamped "under the name Papuliquier, which is a fusion of two group names, Pacpul and Geier" in the years 1675-1707 in Frio County, Texas. The origins of the tribal label "Geier" are obscure if not apocryphal. In this context, the word "Geier" may be a mistranscription of the Spanish word ''Quier'' (a form of English ''want''), or it may be a mistranscription or transliteration of the Spanish word ''Guiar'' (Spanish for "guide" or "lead"), rather than an accurate phonetic rendition of the tribal name from its own language.

Geier is also the name of a bakery chain in ], ].

==References==
{{reflist}}

]
]

]
] ]
] ]

Latest revision as of 04:47, 22 September 2023

Geier may refer to:

Places

Fiction

  • Der Geier (in English The Vulture), a short story by Franz Kafka
  • Marcus Geier, a character in the television show Bones

Naval

See also

Topics referred to by the same term Disambiguation iconThis disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Geier.
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