An Etymological Dictionary of the German Language/Annotated/Dachtel

by Friedrich Kluge

Dachtel, feminine, ‘box on the ear’; like Ohrfeige, properly a euphemism used in jest for a blow. Dachtel is an older (Middle High German) form for Dattel. Compare further the term Kopfnüsse, ‘blows on the head,’ the original sense of which expresses, of course, something different from what is usually understood by the word. See Nuß.