Zickenkrieg

Take yourself back to a crowded junior high lunchroom for a minute. Two girls sit down next to you, and emotions are - predictably - running high: "Wait, what did you tell her about me?!" - "I didn't even talk to her! Why are you always freaking out about nothing?" Sounds like the beginning of a Zickenkrieg, Germans' favorite term for when young women start tangling verbally. Krieg means war, and Zicke refers to a catty, unpleasant person - or to a nanny goat. But in English, we know Zickenkrieg as cat fight. After all, "nanny goat fight" just doesn't have quite the same ring to it.