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Comment by PacifyFish | Hacker News Reader

I love German words.

Disappointingly this article skirts around the obvious English translation: “ass-in-seat.”

Or a bit better rolling off the tongue “Seat-Meat”.

[Edit] Although to add, in English "Seat-Meat" is more a pejorative whereas in German it's a compliment saying you have _the_ Meat which can endure the implied demands and staying power it takes to handle that seat.

That's also a much more literal translation of the phrase. Google Translate suggests it means seated meat.

Edit: Ah, yes, that's what's missing. The implication of muscle in your rear for getting the job done.

If you wanted to be literal it would be sit flesh, perhaps sitting muscles, like working memory and in the broadest sense it might mean composure, patience, dedication in a restricted sense, or in a literally broad sense it means the buttox. Probably not a fat ass gotten from sitting around and neglecting exercise but eating like a weight lifter, although that was my first association in context ... compare "Arsch in der Hose haben" - "to be a hard/bad-ass", referring to courage, abillity and composure more generally, not too different from the massive balls meme.

Great story bbc, very tabloid vulgar after all.

Flesh is the nearest English cognate, but meat is the correct translation. (I'm less clear on sitz, if it should be seat or if it is about sitting.)

But I'm thinking maybe the idea is along the lines of "put your glutes into it" or "do you have the glutes for that?"

In pt_BR we sometimes call this kind of people "iron ass" (cu-de-ferro), particularly in the context of school.

It'd be pretty rare to say "cu-de-ferro" unless you were really trying to be contemptuous. Normally, people say "CDF", which AFAIK originally stood for "cabeça-de-ferro" (iron head). It's a pejorative slang for someone who gets high marks in school.

I've heard that "cu-de-ferro" is a homophobic misinterpretation of CDF ("cu" is a slang for anus, and "cu-de-ferro" is supposed to imply you had sex with the teacher to get said high mark). Never heard of it being used in the ass-in-seat sense.

English has a slightly more general word. It is "grit". The ability to work continuously and without being distracted. Perseverance of effort. Ability to execute on a long term goal efficiently.

Sitzfleisch doesn't mean spending effort but more staying power.

I would also consider "grit" to be a very appreciative term. "Sitzfleisch" I would consider more neutral, a person's property rather than a virtue.

Bryce Courtenay (author of The Power of One) calls this "bum-glue."

That's a great book.

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