West Berliner
1
6.4
- noun
:
berlinés occidental
- West Berliners are chipping away at the wall that scarred their city and scaling it.
Examples
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These constant provocations... failed to provoke the West Berliners.
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One proud mayor proclaimed that, should humanity ever send a generation ship to the stars, it ought to be crewed by West Berliners.
Fiction book (1990) -
But the West Berliners were determined.
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West Berliners are no longer alone.
Academic text (1992) -
One West Berliner sprayed champagne back.
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...East and West Berliners alike are tearing down the greatest symbol of Communist repression...
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At the same time, some West Berliners were claiming that AIDS agents had been developed by the CIA on the order of US President Ronald Reagan to eliminate gay men worldwide.
Academic text (2013) -
During the Cold War, many West Berliners felt isolated from the rest of Germany.
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The stories of West Berliners highlight the unique challenges they faced throughout the division.
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During his visit, President Reagan addressed the crowd of West Berliners at the Brandenburg Gate.
Synonyms
643
1.0
A person from Germany
11
5.5
A person who lives in or comes from Berlin, the capital of Germany
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person from West Berlin' is directly and compositionally derived from the constituents 'West' (the western part) and 'Berliner' (someone from Berlin). This place-based demonym formation is cross-linguistically common and predictable, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE (contextual historical details about pre-reunification are additional but not required for basic comprehension).
Etymology
West Berliner comes from the time when Berlin was split by a wall; someone living on the West side of the city was a Berliner from the west. That's why it means 'a person who lived in West Berlin, especially before the city came together again'.