Vielfraß

Etymology 1
From, from. , the latter being used here in the now obsolete sense “eater” (rather than “food”).

Noun

 * 1) glutton person who eats a lot

Etymology 2
16th century,, also , (this last being the earliest attested form in 1498). Further in all likelihood a folk-etymological alteration of, from +.

The Old Norse origin has been disputed because 🇨🇬 is only found in local dialects and is attested later than the Middle Low German. Moreover, the German form was later borrowed into 🇨🇬 and 🇨🇬 (see descendants below). The usual Scandinavian word for the animal is, ,. Nevertheless, the etymology is now generally accepted on semantic grounds. The popular belief that the wolverine is particularly voracious only developed because of the name, not vice versa. Additionally, the existence of the Middle Low German forms in -s, -tz supports the derivation, because in a native compound we should expect only -t (and a borrowing from High German into Low German is not plausible for a Scandinavian animal in the 15th century).

Noun

 * 1) wolverine, glutton