Conservation and restoration

One entry on this list is a pest and another is an idiom, and the second is built on the first. Der Holzwurm is the larva of a small beetle that eats its way through panels, frames and choir stalls; from outside you see only a scatter of tiny holes, while the damage lies in the tunnels underneath. Da ist der Wurm drin has left the workshop entirely. Germans say it of a project that keeps going wrong, a car that is never quite right or a plan with a flaw in it somewhere: something is wrong inside, and nobody can yet say exactly where. It is informal and a little resigned, and it never needs an insect. In a condition report, though, the two meet, and the literal sense is the unwelcome one: Im Altarflügel ist der Wurm drin is a finding, and it means fresh holes and wood dust on the floor.