Rosehip Mole asked, and Nib — askNib's tutor — drew the answer live at a whiteboard. This is the spoken transcript; enable JavaScript to watch it drawn.
mogelbaum
Mogelbaum isn't a word I've got a fixed, famous fact-file on — so instead of guessing, let's actually learn it, piece by piece, the way a real word-detective would. This is a course of four sections — starting with the word itself.
Prefer the short answer instead? You can switch the course off and just ask again — but let's keep going, because taking a word apart is genuinely fun.
Mogel is a real German root — it means to cheat, fudge, or fib a little, like a kid sneaking an extra card in a game.
Baum is simply the German word for tree — sturdy, literal, no trickery in it at all.
Stuck together, Mogelbaum reads literally as cheat-tree, or trick-tree — the kind of playful, made-up-sounding name German loves to build.
So Mogelbaum breaks into two honest German pieces — cheat and tree — a fun compound before we even know its exact use. Next up: how German compounds work — pick it when you're ready.