What does the German suffix “-arm” mean, as in “antriebsarm”?

Among the symptoms this video lists for depression is being antriebsarm — lacking in Antrieb, “drive” or “motivation.” The suffix -arm doesn’t mean “arm” (the body part); it means “poor in” or “low in” something, the exact opposite of -reich (“rich in”). Antriebsarm literally reads as “motivation-poor,” a precise clinical way to describe someone who has lost the push to do things they normally enjoy.

The same -arm pattern builds everyday words far outside medicine: kalorienarm (“low-calorie”), geräuscharm (“low-noise, quiet”), wasserarm (“dry, low in water,” for a region or plant). Once you recognize the pattern, you can build new “low-in-X” adjectives on the fly — one small, reusable trick for reading nutrition labels or, as here, a symptom checklist.