This week’s German Word of the Week only occurred to me after doing a bit of digging as it is so commonly used that I never thought of it to be funny in another language. “Seitensprung” literally translates to “side jump” – not very interesting: there’s high jump, long jump or pole vault. Maybe the Germans just really like to jump… “Seitensprung” actually does come from sports, horse riding, where it describes a jump to the side by the horse meaning it deviates from where it should go. From the 18th century onwards, “Seitensprung” was also used in a more abstract sense: deviating from the moral standards. Today, it describes a very specific behaviour: having an affair. A rather euphemistic expression…