Hi Andrew,
this is a very interesting example indeed. The word was used in several
Czernowitz newspapers dozens of times over three decades, but can't be
found anywhere else. It is absent from all major German dictionaries and
does not appear in German corpora. I did not find any explanation created
by humans, but different LLMs offer two versions based on contextual
analysis. One of them was quoted by Emil ("a candidate who is using his
fists"), another one is a "Faustian" or "Dr. Faust-like" candidate, i.e., a
candidate who sold his soul to the devil. I think there is also a third
possibility: some of the German compound words which start with "Faust-"
mean "hand-held" (e.g., Fausthantel, Faustkeil, Faustsäge). So, it is
possible that "Faustkandidat" is a hand-held or tame candidate. The first
version seems to be more probable, but the other two can't be completely
discounted either.
Best,
Iosif
On Wed, Feb 18, 2026 at 12:41 AM Andrew Mathis <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I’ve been reading Thomas Hensellek’s German-language book on Bukovina just
> before WWI, and he uses the term “Faustkandidat” in several instances. I
> searched the word online and it appears exclusively (as far as I can tell)
> in publications from Bukovina. Clearly it was a local term of some kind,
> perhaps slang. Would anyone here be able to tell me what it means?
>
> Thanks,
> Andrew
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This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Beginning in 2021,
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