German Expression of the Day: “Der springende Punkt” – This German expression, which literally translates as “the jumping point” is used to express “the heart/core/nub/crux of the matter” or “key point”:

“Der springende Punkt ist: genau das Gegenteil ist richtig.” – “The point of the matter is: The exact opposite is correct.”

This strange expression has an interesting history. Curious about the origin of life (specifically at what point an egg would turn into a chicken), ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle is said to have cracked eggs at different stages of development until he observed a tiny “jumping” point – the future heart of the bird. This proverbial “heart of the matter” or “starting point” thus became translated as “punctum saliens” in Latin (from which English speakers get the word “salient”, which really means “leaping”) and from there made its way to the extremely common German expression featured here.