Pfropfen

• Pfropf (somewhat less common)
• Proppen (in informal compounds; otherwise only colloquial)

From Middle Low German proppen, prop, borrowed into East Central German and thence into the standard language (early 18th century). The modern form is a secondary adaptation to the Upper German consonantism, based formally on the verb pfropfen (“to engraft”, eventually from Latin propago), which in Low and Central German had the form proppen, thus identical to the unrelated noun. Cognate with Dutch prop.

• IPA^(key): /pfrɔpfən/ (standard)
• IPA^(key): /frɔpfən/, [fʁɔpɸn̩] (northern Germany, central Germany)

• Audio

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Pfropfen m (genitive Pfropfens, plural Pfropfen)

1. (regional) plug; something intended to plug
2. (regional) plug; clot; something that happens to plug

• The normal word for sense 1 is Stöpsel, which cannot be used in sense 2, however. In the latter, Pfropfen is more northern and eastern, while Stopfen is the more southern and western word. The written language prefers Pfropfen.

• (plug): Stopfen; Stöpsel
• (clot): Stopfen; Verstopfung

• pfropfen (one of two etymologies)

• Pfropfen in Duden online