What does "Steins Gate" and "El Psy Congroo" mean?

Ever heard of Steins;Gate? It is one of the most successful time travel anime of all time, and one of the intriguing things is its name and mentioned words. With that in mind, in this article we will unravel the true meaning of Steins Gate and El Psy Congroo.

If you haven't watched the anime yet, run and watch it because it's the greatest experience you will ever have. If you've watched it, you know that Steins Gate is just a word invented by Okabe that mixes English and German, but with no apparent meaning. Really?

What does Steins Gate really mean?

In the anime it is not shown, but in the original game of Steins;Gate in certain dialogue and mentions of the name of the game in Japanese he makes a kind of wordplay.

The famous phrase This is the Choice of Steins;Gate in the game it is written:

「これが運命石の扉(シュタインズ・ゲート)の選択か…」

Steins;Gate mentioned by Okabe is written [運命石の扉] which in Japanese literally means “the stone gate of fate”, but which reads furigana (in parentheses) [email protected].

The correct reading of the ideograms [運命石の扉] for this meaning would be something like "unmei-seki no tobira", but the wordplay did the following:

  • 運命石 - unmei-seki - Stone of Destiny - Stein;
  • - tobira - gate, portal - gate;

The first expression takes a German language word while the second takes an English language word, but both were correctly represented with Japanese language.

In a 2009 interview with news portal Dengeki Online, scenario writer Naotaka Hayashi said that "stein" has two origins.

The first is that “stein” is derived from Albert Einstein, whose theory of relativity plays a role in history. The second is that “stein” is the German word for “stone” in the term “stone of fate”.

Gate is an English word that usually means gate, but it can also refer to a door, portal or passage. Probably referencing the path from one timeline to another.

Stein's gate itself is a pseudo-term created by Okabe as part of his delusions of grandeur and has no real meaning in the real world.

What does Steins Gate and El Psy Congroo mean?

What does Reading Steiner mean?

So does another term he came up with to reference Okabe's abilities to retain memory across timelines.

The term Reading Steiner in the Japanese game is written as [運命探知の魔眼] which literally means something like: Demon Eye of Destiny Detection.

It may seem strange to use Ideograms to create words with incorrect readings, but this actually exists in the Japanese language and is called Ateji.

A great example of this is in the name of some countries. Brazil for example can be written using the ideograms [伯剌西爾] pronouncing burajiru.

What does Steins Gate and El Psy Congroo mean?

What does El Psy Congroo or Kongroo mean?

This is another jargon spoken by the Protagonist Okabe in which he says it has no special meaning. But if we analyze the word, can we find a meaning for El Psy Congroo?

El Psy Kongroo “is the password Okabe Rintaro uses whenever he ends a phone conversation pertaining to his crazy endeavors.

The expression possibly comes from a mixture of Spanish and Latin which means something like "The mind agrees" or "The mind is congruent".

The phrase El Psy Kongroo is a reference to the @channel meme "La Yohasoh Steana" and possibly something related to John Titor's real-world codeword, "Tempus edax rerum", meaning "Time, the devourer of all things. "

Although the anime translates as Congroo the correct spelling is Kongroo, it can be seen in the scene where the video is received by Okabe by email [email protected] where the initial five letters stand for Steins Gate El Psy Kongroo.

What does Steins Gate and El Psy Congroo mean?

The Meaning of Operations at Steins Gate

In addition to the word Steins;Gate, in the daydreams of the protagonist Okabe, he created several operations with strange names. Usually name of Norse Gods. What do you think we see the meaning of your operations?

The names of the three operations refer to three Norse goddesses called Norns who are born from the source Urð (source of life) and lived protected by one of the branches of the tree Yggdrasill. These three goddesses are responsible for the fate of people.

Operation Urd

This operation is mentioned between episodes 01 to 12. Its first appearance occurs in the presentation of the characters and in the learning to change the past with Microwave Telephone.

Urd according to Norse mythology refers to the goddess of the past. She was represented as the figure of a woman or a mythical being who lived in Uroarbrunnr, sometimes represented as a Valkyrie.

Operation Verdandi

Operation Verdandi takes place between episodes 13 to 22 where Okabe tries to undo all the D-mails in order to save Mayuri from death.

The Goddess Verdandi is the goddess of the present, or goddess of the event. She is a young woman who always looks to the present. It appears in the verses of the poem Edda.

Operation Skuld

Operation Skuld takes place between episodes 23 and 24 of the anime, where Okarin tries to change his future without changing his past in order to reach the Steins;Gate line.

Skuld is the goddess of the future, her name can also mean debt. Skuld, Verdanti and Urdu form the three goddesses of people's fate, her name also appears in Edda's poems as a Valkyrie.

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