hohlbirnen

[kee]

I don't have a specific context. l've seen a few uses of it and it seems a generic term of abuse like idiot or rubbish? I can't find a dictionary definition.

 

[Crayon123]

“Hohlbirne” is a person who is rather stupid/ not intelligent at all. As an insult, it’s not that hard. It sounds rather funny.

Here’s a German definition:
Hohlbirne

 

[Demiurg]

"Birne" (lit. pear) is colloquial for "head" and "hohl" means "hollow", hence "hollow head" (because the brain is missing).

 

[Hutschi]

It is a metaphor. So without context it is not clear.

In context of idiot it can mean idiot, in this case there are lots of words with very small differences.

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I give some variants:

Birne can be a metaphor for Kopf insome areas in coll. language. In this case "Du bist eine Hohlbirne" means "Hohlkopf" - "in your head is nothing but a hole."
This is basically "you are an idiot."

This might be transfered to the person as metaphor.

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Hohlbirne | Übersetzung Englisch-Deutsch gives:

numbnuts [coll.] [pej.]

Edit: crossposted with Demiurg.


PS: I searched whether it is used in a technical sense like "birne=lamp" and "Hohlbirne" is a kind of housing, but it is not. I did not find it.
And I did not find that it is anywhere used for the fruit. It is always used for a person or the person's head in an extremely pejorative sense.

 

[JClaudeK]

"Birne" (lit. pear) is colloquial for "head" [=Kopf] and "hohl" means "hollow"

"Hohlkopf" exists, too. And it's even more commun.

Hohlkopf - Wörterbuch Deutsch-Englisch - WordReference.com

 

[Maformatiker]

It is a metaphor. So without context it is not clear.

I don't agree. The meaning is clear, there are no contexts where this means something else than idiot, airhead, blockhead... But I don't hear it often.