luftgeschaeft

/ˈlʌftɡəˌʃɛft/

luftgeschaeft means A meaningless or unproductive job, which contributes little or no value to society. It carries an Arena rating of 1513, earned across 19 head-to-head judged battles.

luftgeschaeft is pronounced /ˈlʌftɡəˌʃɛft/.

Why “luftgeschaeft” is a great word

An enterprise so devoid of substance that its product is essentially air. From Yiddish לופֿט געשעפֿט (luft gesheft), from German Luftgeschäft, from Luft ('air') + Geschäft ('business, trade'). Unlike 'busywork,' which implies tangible, if trivial, tasks, or a 'sinecure,' which denotes a paid position with little duty, a luftgeschäft is defined by its foundational insubstantiality—a venture with no real product, service, or purpose to begin with. It is the sleek corporate presentation for a product that will never exist, the meticulous drafting of regulations designed never to be enforced, the phantom weight of a business plan for a product no one needs—the quiet, costly pantomime of purpose that fills the vacuum where real work should be.

Etymology

From Yiddish לופֿט געשעפֿט (luft gesheft), from German Luftgeschäft, from Luft (“air”) + Geschäft (“business”); with spelling influenced by the orthography of the German term.

noun

A meaningless or unproductive job, which contributes little or no value to society.“The economic situation of the Jewish people in the diaspora is an inverted pyramid. The normal situation is when the majority is productive, a proletariat in professions like agriculture and industry, and only a minority is bourgeois, in unproductive trades like banking and commerce. Most of the Jewish people work in luftgeschaeft.”