What does “meckern” mean in German?

Meckern means to grumble, moan, and nag about everything. Its charm is in the origin: it’s the onomatopoeic verb for the sound a goat makes — to bleat. So when someone meckert wegen jeder Kleinigkeit (“moans about every little thing”), German quietly paints them as a bleating goat. It’s informal and mildly critical, the perfect word for a nitpicker who just won’t stop.

The bleating root runs deep: meckern traces back to imitations of a goat’s cry, kin to Greek mēkás (“goat”) and old German Mecke (“he-goat”). That barnyard image is why the word feels so pointed. Related forms include der Meckerer (a chronic complainer) and die Meckerei (constant carping). The clip hammers it home by repeating wegen jeder Kleinigkeit — the complaint about the complaining.