Tongue Twisters

I was at my local German club in England and a few German people asked me if i knew this word. Streichholzschachtelcen. I just know they were winding me up because of their laughter. They said find out for next month. Anyone out there who can translate it for me. Thank you. Daniel.

Literally I think it means a little box of matches. However, it probably has an idiomatic slang connotation as well based on the snickers you were getting. BTW, I think the correct spelling is Streichholzschächtelchen. The word is often used as a humorous language test for foreigners, because it is thought to be particularly difficult to pronounce.

First link I came up with is a book that Google scanned called "Even More Englishes: Studies 1996-1997" by Manfred Görlach that explains "Shibboleths...are incorrigible ethnic features of pronunciation ... of rather negative consequences for their speakers. Thus the fleeing ... Poles along the German-Polish border in 1914 were singled out on the basis of their (mis-)pronunciation of Streichholzschächtelchen 'little match-box' ..." Here's the link so you can find what it really says instead of what I quote above. :) https://books.google.fr/books?id=eZxfzuC9d-8C&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=Streichholzsch%C3%A4chtelchen+joke&source=bl&ots=leO0KTUkV4&sig=pKyZeci2MIxbrIux5j488HuMqCA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=aS64VO_HMMn2UvWEgagB&ved=0CDgQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=Streichholzsch%C3%A4chtelchen%20joke&f=false

Oh and please, try to learn the pronunciation and see if you can fool your friends. Dict.cc has two human pronunciations for this word. It's a challenge to break it down into pieces and try to get it right... http://www.dict.cc/?s=Streichholzsch%C3%A4chtelchen Good luck!