40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know
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by Michael The Yiddish language is a wonderful source of rich expressions, especially terms of endearment (and of course, complaints and insults). This article is a follow up on Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should Know. Jewish scriptwriters introduced many Yiddish words into popular culture, which often changed the original meanings drastically. You might be surprised to learn how much Yiddish you already speak, but also, how many familiar words actually mean something different in real Yiddish. There is no universally accepted transliteration or spelling; the standard YIVO version is based on the Eastern European Klal Yiddish dialect, while many Yiddish words found in English came from Southern Yiddish dialects. In the 1930s, Yiddish was spoken by more than 10 million people, but by 1945, 75% of them were gone. Today, Yiddish is the language of over 100 newspapers, magazines, radio broadcasts, and websites. 1. baleboste A good homemaker, a woman whos in charge of her home and will make sure you remember it. 2. bissel Or bisl a little bit. 3. bubbe Or bobe. It means Grandmother, and bobeshi is the more affectionate form. Bubele is a similarly affectionate word, though it isnt in Yiddish dictionaries. 4. bupkes Not a word for polite company. Bubkes or bobkes may be related to the Polish word for beans, but it really means goat droppings or horse droppings. Its often used by American Jews for trivial, worthless, useless, a ridiculously small amount less than nothing, so to speak. After all the work I did, I got bupkes! 5. chutzpah Or khutspe. Nerve, extreme arrogance, brazen presumption. In English, chutzpah often connotes courage or confidence, but among Yiddish speakers, it is not a compliment. 6. feh! An expression of disgust or disapproval, representative of the sound of spitting. 7. glitch Or glitsh. Literally slip, skate, or nosedive, which was the origin of the
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common American usage as a minor problem or error. 8. gornisht More polite than bupkes, and also implies a strong sense of nothing; used in phrases such as gornisht helfn (beyond help). 9. goy A non-Jew, a Gentile. As in Hebrew, one Gentile is a goy, many Gentiles are goyim, the non-Jewish world in general is the goyim. Goyish is the adjective form. Putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich is goyish. Putting mayonnaise on a pastrami sandwich on white bread is even more goyish. 10. kibbitz In Yiddish, its spelled kibets, and its related to the Hebrew kibbutz or collective. But it can also mean verbal joking, which after all is a collective activity. It didnt originally mean giving unwanted advice about someone elses game thats an American innovation. 11. klutz Or better yet, klots. Literally means a block of wood, so its often used for a dense, clumsy or awkward person. See schlemiel. 12. kosher Something thats acceptable to Orthodox Jews, especially food. Other Jews may also eat kosher on some level but are not required to. Food that Orthodox Jews dont eat pork, shellfish, etc. is called traif. An observant Jew might add, Both pork and shellfish are doubtlessly very tasty. I simply am restricted from eating it. In English, when you hear something that seems suspicious or shady, you might say, That doesnt sound kosher. 13. kvetsh In popular English, kvetch means complain, whine or fret, but in Yiddish, kvetsh literally means to press or squeeze, like a wrong-sized shoe. Reminds you of certain chronic complainers, doesnt it? But its also used on Yiddish web pages for click (Click Here). 14. maven Pronounced meyven. An expert, often used sarcastically. 15. Mazel Tov Or mazltof. Literally good luck, (well, literally, good constellation) but its a congratulation for what just happened, not a hopeful wish for what might happen in the future. When someone gets married or has a child or graduates from college, this is what you say to them. It can also be used sarcastically to mean its about time, as in Its about time you finished school and stopped sponging off your parents. 16. mentsh An honorable, decent person, an authentic person, a person who helps you when you need help. Can be a man, woman or child. 17. mishegas Insanity or craziness. A meshugener is a crazy man. If you want to insult someone, you can ask them, Does it hurt to be crazy? 18. mishpocheh Or mishpokhe or mishpucha. It means family, as in Relax, youre mishpocheh. Ill sell it to you at wholesale. 19. nosh Or nash. To nibble; a light snack, but you wont be light if you dont stop noshing. Can also describe plagarism, though not always in a bad sense; you know, picking up little pieces for yourself. 20. nu A general word that calls for a reply. It can mean, So? Huh? Well? Whats up? or Hello? 21. oy vey Exclamation of dismay, grief, or exasperation. The phrase oy vey iz mir means Oh, woe is me. Oy gevalt! is like oy vey, but expresses fear, shock or
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amazement. When you realize youre about to be hit by a car, this expression would be appropriate. plotz Or plats. Literally, to explode, as in aggravation. Well, dont plotz! is similar to Dont have a stroke! or Dont have a cow! Also used in expressions such as, Oy, am I tired; I just ran the four-minute mile. I could just plotz. That is, collapse. shalom It means deep peace, and isnt that a more meaningful greeting than Hi, how are ya? shlep To drag, traditionally something you dont really need; to carry unwillingly. When people shlep around, they are dragging themselves, perhaps slouchingly. On vacation, when Im the one who ends up carrying the heavy suitcase I begged my wife to leave at home, I shlep it. shlemiel A clumsy, inept person, similar to a klutz (also a Yiddish word). The kind of person who always spills his soup. schlock Cheap, shoddy, or inferior, as in, I dont know why I bought this schlocky souvenir. shlimazel Someone with constant bad luck. When the shlemiel spills his soup, he probably spills it on the shlimazel. Fans of the TV sitcom Laverne and Shirley remember these two words from the Yiddish-American hopscotch chant that opened each show. shmendrik A jerk, a stupid person, popularized in The Last Unicorn and Welcome Back Kotter. shmaltzy Excessively sentimental, gushing, flattering, over-the-top, corny. This word describes some of Hollywoods most famous films. From shmaltz, which means chicken fat or grease. shmooze Chat, make small talk, converse about nothing in particular. But at Hollywood parties, guests often schmooze with people they want to impress. schmuck Often used as an insulting word for a self-made fool, but you shouldnt use it in polite company at all, since it refers to male anatomy. spiel A long, involved sales pitch, as in, I had to listen to his whole spiel before I found out what he really wanted. From the German word for play. shikse A non-Jewish woman, all too often used derogatorily. It has the connotation of young and beautiful, so referring to a mans Gentile wife or girlfriend as a shiksa implies that his primary attraction was her good looks. She is possibly blonde. A shagetz or sheygets means a non-Jewish boy, and has the connotation of a someone who is unruly, even violent. shmutz Or shmuts. Dirt a little dirt, not serious grime. If a little boy has shmutz on his face, and he likely will, his mother will quickly wipe it off. It can also mean dirty language. Its not nice to talk shmutz about shmutz. A current derivation, schmitzig, means a thigamabob or a doodad, but has nothing to do with filth. shtick Something youre known for doing, an entertainers routine, an actors bit, stage business; a gimmick often done to draw attention to yourself.
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36. tchatchke Or tshatshke. Knick-knack, little toy, collectible or giftware. It also appears in sentences such as, My brother divorced his wife for some little tchatchke. You can figure that one out. 37. tsuris Or tsores. Serious troubles, not minor annoyances. Plagues of lice, gnats, flies, locusts, hail, death now, those were tsuris. 38. tuches Rear end, bottom, backside, buttocks. In proper Yiddish, its spelled tuchis or tuches or tokhis, and was the origin of the American slang word tush. 39. yente Female busybody or gossip. At one time, high-class parents gave this name to their girls (after all, it has the same root as gentle), but it gained the Yiddish meaning of she-devil. The matchmaker in Fiddler on the Roof was named Yente (and she certainly was a yente though maybe not very high-class), so many people mistakenly think that yente means matchmaker. 40. yiddisher kop Smart person. Literally means Jewish head. I dont want to know what goyisher kop means. As in Hebrew, the ch or kh in Yiddish is a voiceless fricative, with a pronunciation between h and k. If you dont know how to make that sound, pronounce it like an h. Pronouncing it like a k is goyish. Links Yiddish Language and Culture history of Yiddish, alphabet, literature, theater, music, etc. Grow A Brain Yiddish Archive the Beatles in Yiddish, the Yiddish Hillbillies, the Pirates of Penzance in Yiddish, etc.
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January 2008 Most Popular Posts Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should Know Everybody is a Native Speaker, Nobody is a Native Writer
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279 Responses to The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

1. Sheri Jo on January 15, 2008 5:43 pm Fantastic post! I grew up in a town with many, many Jewish people and Yiddish sayings are 2nd nature to me. However, the town I have lived in for the past 15 years has a very small Jewish population in comparison. Consequently, whenever I use a Yiddish term, the response is either hysterical laughter or the DAHHH shmendrik look. Thanks for a great post! 2. Daniel Scocco on January 15, 2008 6:05 pm Interesting indeed, many of these words I had used in the past, without knowing their origin. 3. la di dah on January 16, 2008 2:05 am I love the word schmuck. Great post! 4. Daniel Quall King on January 16, 2008 12:48 pm In Southern American Jewish Yiddish of the 1950s, to kibbitz just meant to have a good chat; but often with overtones of gossiping. 5. Yuri on January 16, 2008 3:32 pm What hutzpa, ani roche ledaber lbeail shel atar. kan leiot 100 milim ze ata charih ladot. 6. Izzy on January 16, 2008 3:35 pm 41: Shtup Literaly to stuff. Used as a euphemism for sex. He stopped shtupping his shiksa after she gained weight.
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7. Jim Walsh on January 16, 2008 3:41 pm Shalom Aleichem! Great List! No other language has the expressive power of Yiddish maybe because its a mash-up of several languages. Some other widely used Yiddish words you should consider for future lists (50 words?) include: 1) Gonif thief 2) Shnorren to beg or mooch 3) Versteh understand, get it? use in place of capeesh (from Italian, capire) for a one word interrogative for Do you understand? 4) Macher a hot shot or big wig 5) Zaftig buxom or hefty (but in a good way) Sei gesund! Jim 8. Daniel Scocco on January 16, 2008 3:45 pm Thanks for the additions guys, we might even update the list later to incorporate these. 9. Marc Savoy on January 16, 2008 3:51 pm What yiddish words list is complete without the inclusion of Shabbos Goy? term for the local neighborly, gentile whom the Orthodox Jewish community knew to rely on in turning on electricity, light. fire, other activities they were forbidden to do themselves 10. JewishIn on January 16, 2008 4:03 pm Some of these words also cross over to other languages like russian where they mean similar things and are used similarly to english could yiddish be the hidden world language? 11. Robert Aitchison on January 16, 2008 4:12 pm Yiddish is slang plain and simple, its the middle ages version of ebonics. 12. toneii on January 16, 2008 4:18 pm Many of the words are German; here are some I recognize: bissel > bisschen (a little) mentsh > Mensch (man) kop > kopf (head) nosh > gnash (snack) spiel > Spiel (play) gornischt > nichts (nothing) schmutz > schmutz (dirt) 13. Bryan on January 16, 2008 4:37 pm Spiel: Also means story in Irish. Cad e an spiel ? == Whats the story. Remarkably similar meanings.
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14. maus on January 16, 2008 4:50 pm Schvitzing Profuse sweating 15. Al on January 16, 2008 5:15 pm Good list! You will find some Yiddush/Hebrew in the Star Trek movies and novels too. In one scene, Kirk uses a Klingon communicator and screams to the transporter operator: Shmaltz! [beam me up] 16. JH on January 16, 2008 5:20 pm Great list. You cant leave out nudnik when the shlemiel spills his soup on the shlimazel, its the nudnik who asks what kind of soup it was! 17. jedrek on January 16, 2008 5:49 pm I read #4 and thought huh?. The polish word for beans is fasola. 18. Karen on January 16, 2008 5:51 pm No Chupah no Shtupanot advise I follow, but its what so many bubbelahs say! 19. Okrim Al Qasal on January 16, 2008 7:19 pm Oh wow! Jewish people is so cool! I have to learn this words because gringos use them! You are useless I mean, Yiddish. 20. mike on January 16, 2008 9:16 pm May I add knocker which is a big talker, full of hot air, without the ability to back it up; nebbish an unfortunate nobody who gets picked on; shmatteh which is a rag or inferior clothing [also the Apparel Business is known as the 'Shmatteh' Trade]; farblondget hopefully lost or confused. Dreck is also an important word, means inferior product or worse.. My, my, Mr. Poster of Comment #8, whos the Racist? if you read your history, you will find that the Jews in Eastern Europe were excluded from many professions, forced to live in Ghettos [the Yiddish Word is Shtetl], and faced severe discrimination and Anti-Semitism. Often the Grubbe Yungem [low class coarse individuals] would come into the Shtetl and Beat Up or even Murder a few Jews to feel good about things. Hence the Jews were understandably wary of Gentiles. Shabbes Goy was usually an agreeable neighbor. Yes, there is definitely overreaching on the part of some Israelis with their neighbors, but it happens in all races and religions, perhaps except yours, whatever it is, since you are so pristine. 21. zmarn on January 16, 2008 9:51 pm @toneii Yes, many words seem familiar. gornischt > nichts (nothing)
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I would say its more like: gornischt > gar nichts (nothing) 22. Ed on January 16, 2008 11:39 pm Most of these words come from the German language: Schmalz, schleppen, quetschen, Klotz, oweh, mir (accusativ of ich), Mensch etc. So what does that tell you about exclusivity? 23. Ed on January 16, 2008 11:45 pm @nr 11, Jim No other language? Do you know any others than English and Jiddish Shnorren German: schnorren, same meaning Versteh German: verstehen, to understand (Verstehst du das?) Macher German: machen, to make; Macher: an accomplisher Zaftig German: saftig, from Saft=juice; ein saftiges Bussgeld a heavy fine 24. Christie on January 17, 2008 12:04 am What about verklempt? It was made popular during SNLs Coffee Talk sketch and it seemed that they were using it as Im emotional and unable to talk. Some of my Jewish co-workers said thats not the real meaning and verklempt was not being used properlyl 25. iwo on January 17, 2008 12:12 am Jiddish is a german language. Linguistic says. 26. Jim Walsh on January 17, 2008 5:42 am Hey Mr. Ed, commentator # 32, Your comment is worthless several commented here already about the obvious German cognates with Yiddish. Nothing new both Yiddish and modern High German stem from the older Middle High German. Yiddish also borrows from Slavic languages (e.g., Polish and Russian), as well as Semitic tongues (e.g., using the Hebrew aphabet). My post just suggested some other Yiddish words that are used in vernacular English for possible inclusion on a future list here. Just some constructive commentary on my part. Maybe you should try that, instead of making useless, persnickety comments about other posts. No one is impressed that you can conjugate a few German verbs. Und ja, Ich kenne andere Sprache zum Beispiel, Italienisch: Va fanculo!! 27. Tom Ritchford on January 17, 2008 6:42 am Ok and Marc you forgot to add hypocritical before Orthodox Jewish, truly observant (of halacha) Jews would not use legal loopholes to try to get around their own rules. I think you are misguided here. The essence of the rules is that they are formal entities you are required to obey the strict letter of the law, no more and no less. If they bred a pig that chewed its cud, itd be kosher. Well, probably, see here: http://www.radosh.net/archive/001475.html
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28. Josh on January 17, 2008 11:46 am Ah, Yiddish, what a language! Combines only the best of German and Hebrew/Aramaic! But you forgot the word schvitz/shvitz meaning a sauna or to hand around and have a nice long chat. Remember, little chats for Jews take much longer than for Goyim Signed Josh 29. Michael on January 17, 2008 8:17 pm Great conversation, everybody. Maybe well have to make another list. One challenge is to figure out the true origin of words. For example, in 1836, Charles Dickens wrote in Sketches by Boz, Hooroar, ejaculates a pot-boy in parenthesis, put the kye-bosk on her, Mary! The word kibosh sounds Yiddish, but it also sounds like the Irish cie bais, meaning the cap of death worn by a judge. Thanks to Elizabeth Mitchell for mentioning that. 30. Izzy on January 18, 2008 2:36 am The origin of kibosh reminds me of the story that in Russia, when the Tzar would come into one of the small Jewish towns, the army would be there before him to insist that the townspeople greet the Tzar appropriately. The townspeople didnt know what to do. They all hated the Tzar, and hated all the things he did. So, when the Tzar rode through the town, all the townspeople shouted Hoo Rah, Hoo Rah (NOTE: in Hebrew Hoo Rah translates literally into He is Evil.) 31. ..L on January 22, 2008 1:05 am Is Yiddish a sister language of Arabic? 32. ..L on January 22, 2008 1:05 am Thanks for sharing, ..interesting to know 33. Sami on January 22, 2008 2:12 pm Nice post. But what is even more interesting is the huge interest for Yiddish language. At http://eYiddish.org we have started offering online Yiddish lessons. We were surprised by the demand. Another proof (if needed) that Yiddish is a living language and studied by youngster also. 34. Michael on January 22, 2008 2:21 pm A sister language to Arabic? Thats an interesting thought. Arabic is a sister language to Hebrew, which is a major source for Yiddish words. German speakers have told us about all the words that German shares with Yiddish. I wonder if Arabic speakers can recognize any of the Yiddish words which came from Hebrew.
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I should point out that Arabic is a colorful language as well, but Jews have been much more involved than Arabs in English-speaking radio, television and film. So fewer Arabic words have entered the English language than Yiddish words. Perhaps as other ethnic groups become more influential in American or British popular culture, their languages will also feed the development of English to a greater extent. 35. red on January 25, 2008 9:18 am Cool list! Regarding the shlemiel and shlimazel, I learned a slightly different definition. Basically the shlemiel spills the soup on himself, and the shlimazel spills the soup on the person sitting next to him. The nebish (or nebich not sure on the spelling) sits next to the shlimazel 36. Michael on January 25, 2008 3:22 pm The mazel in shlimazel is also found in mazltof it means luck. Or in his case, unlucky. 37. LeonardLennys on February 1, 2008 12:24 pm Reply on Christie on January 17th, 2008 12:04: What about verklempt? Its probably close to the german verklemmt which means uptight. Someone whos not comfortable around others or a little unsecure. It can also relate to sexuality. In that case it means prudish. 38. LeonardLennys on February 1, 2008 12:47 pm oopsI meant to write insecure (not unsecure) 39. BillinDetroit on February 1, 2008 7:56 pm #28 Acts 10:9-15 comes in handy, sometimes. Otherwise, no calamari! The thing I, a Caucasian goy, appreciate about sites such as these and the other ethnic / racially oriented sites is that I come away with a better knowledge of the people around me. I have a sort of universal love for humanity I wish I had time to truly know each and every decent human being I meet. Like Saul / Paul of the Christian Greek scriptures, I am indebted to every well-lived life I have ever learned from. Those arent his words, but I think that they do reflect his thinking at 2 Corinthians 7:13-16. As one of Jehovahs Witnesses, there is a distinct line drawn in the sand between myself and a modern Jew, but I do have a strong historical interest in the Jewish people. They are, after all, the kin of Jesus and that is the religion he was raised in and was thoroughly familiar with. Basically we differ in only one important regard the anointed messiahship of Jesus. We were with you in the Nazi extermination camps with the important distinction that we were free to leave. All we had to do was repudiate Yahweh and walk out of the camp. With only a handful of exceptions, we stayed, choosing martyrdom over betrayal. I am leaving behind a link pointing to my blog regarding my beliefs. If you change the URL, dropping the word beliefs and adding the word life, youll find further insight into the world as I see it.
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40. Mark Anthony on February 1, 2008 11:01 pm BillinDetroit, Assuming a typo, that you arent actually a caucasian goy, are you a caucasian guy, or a caucasian gay? Anyway, Im not sure what place your religious views have on a glossary of yiddish words. We werent really looking for lessons on how each word is to be perceived by various religions. This is more of a culture thing, though a religion is involved, it isnt really religious so to speak. This isnt, as you have assumed or mistakenly concluded, an ethnic / racially oriented site. It is a writing / language oriented site. ~ Mark Anthony 41. Michael on February 2, 2008 12:02 am The top nomination for favorite Yiddish word that didnt get included on this list seems to be: nebbish (n) An innocuous, ineffectual, weak, helpless or hapless unfortunate. 42. John B. Goy on February 3, 2008 6:28 am A nice post, many words which I use. My beef is not giving phonetic pronunciations. If these are 40 words people should know, shouldnt they know how to say them correctly? Good luck pronouncing tchatchke correctly without help. So Im a nudge (nooj). Sue me. 43. Michael on February 3, 2008 1:35 pm Ah, but since were a writing blog, not a reading blog or a speaking blog, may we not be excused for our lack of pronunciation guides? Besides, the Southern Yiddish pronunciation is different from the Eastern European pronunciation. Okay, okay to hear tchatchke pronounced, give this link a kvetch (audio in ogg format). 44. daniel levy on February 28, 2008 10:40 pm Excellent! but what about ladino, the language of the jews who fledd from Spain to places like Istambul and Thesaloniki? Its a funny language, very funny. Try to develope the issue. Daniel Levy 45. David on March 19, 2008 9:34 pm What about gevaldig (great), draikup (crooked guy) 46. 31547 on March 20, 2008 11:09 am i think it is interesting to know these words. thank you to the poster of them, as well as thank you to all that posted. i have a project at my school on children of the holacaust, and these words have come in handy because we have to pretend we are that child, and write a diary. i hope when people post, they arent doing it just to start stuff. because each person individually helps by adding what they think on this. as with, the caucasian goy, cool, that u thought to use the goy part at the end. thanks to all that posted.
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47. Steve on May 23, 2008 10:00 pm I like your blog! It disturbs me that anti-semites would seek out such a site just to make caustic comments. I suppose all spoken languages started as some derrivative of another as slang if you will. At what point they become a legitimate language I dont know. Its true that many widely spoken languages have come and gone and the true roots of many words that we still speak have gone with them. I speak some German and naturally recogonise the commonalities. I think it is important to understand our linguistic heritage as something given to us from many cultures. Thanks, I didnt realize some of these common expressions were Yiddish! shalom 48. Helga Panton on June 6, 2008 5:25 pm Can you tell me where I might find words which are not listed? Thanks for any help or advise. hhp 49. Robey on June 12, 2008 3:55 pm Great list, all words and expressions I am well familiar with, and being Jewish I love to see Yiddish get the respect and attention it deserves. One minor quibble though. This: mishpocheh Or mishpokhe or mishpucha. It means family, as in Relax, youre mishpocheh. Ill sell it to you at wholesale. Really? Was this necessary? Ill sell it to you at wholesale?! Why bring up the stereotype of the Jewish person haggling over money? Its such a great word and all it means is family. Why bring retail/wholesale into it at all? That just makes me sad. Im sure it was just an oversight or maybe Im being overly sensitive but I did notice it. Otherwise, great list. 50. peter isaac on July 15, 2008 5:13 am The word mishpocha for family and the Maori word mokopuna also means family indicating a rabbinical influence in codifying Maori into a written language 150 years ago. 51. Estelle on July 28, 2008 9:12 pm My daughter and her husband insist that my husband used a word that described someone who sponges off another person is called a kuchanika. I have never heard that word. Is it a real word or is there another word that sounds similar. I would appreciate any help I can get to solve this dispute. Thanks 52. Michel on August 7, 2008 2:42 pm Yiddish = Jewish.maybe in some cases but not necessarily. I grew up in Antwerp, a region known for its Diamaond trade which is largely handle by the jewish community. My dad himself being from Jewish decent married my mom (Of course) a shiksa herself. But though he no longer was considered jewish, he stayed very active in the Jewish community for both business and from a social stand point. many of the Jews in antwerp are Ashkenazi
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Jews. Ashkenaze being an old term for the Rhineland in Germany. Hence much of the Jiddish spoken there is influenced by german and quite easy for me to understand. Yet when I came to the US and even when I travelled to Israel, the yiddish I heard there, though very resembling the Euro Yiddish, there were distinct differences. I believe Yiddish is influenced a lot by the area the jewish people can be traced back to. Then again, just an opinion. Mazel Tov! 53. Alex Case on August 25, 2008 2:55 pm Nice selection- better than wikipedia! 54. ruby on August 29, 2008 1:28 am yiddish is just german, stolen language. notice the reference to shikse and its connotations? 55. ruby on August 29, 2008 1:32 am yea josh, i bet your little jewish talks take longer than goyim. so typical. steal something and claim it as your own, age old trick. yiddish is german, and dont insult the germans by claiming you invented it. 56. Renata J. Beaudoin on September 2, 2008 11:38 pm I just love the use of yiddish words.the meaning is exactly what the words sounds like..In though I have gentile origins I have many Jewish friends and a Jewish daughter-in-law and grand daughter. I have a great appreciation and love of words but the Yiddish words are in a category all their own. Thanks. Renata J. Beaudoin. 57. Chris Chapman on October 11, 2008 12:18 pm I thought this was about Yiddish expressions, but instead I see it is a list of Yiddish words. Just like the pronunciation of words depends on the origin of the speaker, so the selection of words reflects the country where they are taken up. Thus American obsessions with hygeine, sex and prurience, and the ignorance and stupidity of others gets promoted. Sorry for pomo rant, No other language has the expressive power of Yiddish with imagination like this Jim Walsh should be writing advertising copy. 58. Alina on October 11, 2008 6:33 pm In Russian we also say FEH or FOO for ew and NU just to answer any question or to fill the silence) Thanks for the list! 59. motormind on October 13, 2008 5:37 am I am not familiar with most of these, but I am fairly sure that shtik is supposed
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to be spelled shtick, since that is the only word I use regularly. 60. Daniel Scocco on October 13, 2008 8:56 am @Chris Chapman, the title of the article is pretty clear. @motormind, you might be right. 61. AltMichael on October 14, 2008 8:46 pm Most (but not all) of these words would be inappropriate to use in English, because they are not established borrowings in the English language. The purpose of language is communication, so if you use foreign words, you will not be understood. (By foreign words I do not mean words of foreign origin. The origin of a word is not relevant, only whether it is an English word today.) Also, I found that many of them are appropriate only for Jews to use. Being a non-Jew, I would never use the word goy. I think its silly to try to sound Jewish, unless you really are Jewish. To settle the origins questions (Linguistics was my college major), Yiddish is classified as a High Germanic language. The only other one being Modern Standard German. It is really a Jewish form of Middle High German. There have been Jewish versions of other languages as well. The reason that Jews had their own versions of a language is because they were segregated for most of European history. Like species, languages tend to diverge when groups of speakers become isolated from each other. Finally, Yiddish is the only Germanic language that is not written in the Roman alphabet. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet. Writing systems have nothing to do with the origins or relatedness of languages. (BTW, its Hebrew that is related to Arabic, not Yiddish. Both are members of the Semitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages.) 62. Michael on October 16, 2008 10:38 am I always thought shtik was spelled schtick, in German style, but the mavens at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research have standardized the spelling. Actually, were all wrong. The correct spelling is . So nu. 63. Kimbo on October 22, 2008 2:35 pm I saw some of these and immediately thought of the nadsat language Burgess invented in A Clockwork Orange mentsh, for instance. I had no idea it came from Yiddish! 64. adam on November 12, 2008 12:22 am You forgot the worst and most used of them all: schvatza from the german word schvatz or schwartz meaning black albeit, it has a derogatory meaning similar to the N word. Not to be used at all in my opinion. by the way, a schmuck in german mean jeweler and is still used today on storefronts and small jewelry repair shops 65. zack kushner on December 8, 2008 12:04 am
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Nice list! I studied Yiddish briefly in university and its a fascinating language thats rapidly dying. My bubbe speaks it, but shes 93. It is mostly cribbed from German, but it also blends in bits of other languages like Russian and Hebrew. Pronunciation is key with Yiddish. Saying a Yiddish word the wrong way ruins the effect. Getting the ch of chutzpah makes the difference! Since some letter combinations used in Yiddish dont exist in English, it can be tricky. The tz, for example; although it can be found in the zz of pizza. The other key piece to Yiddish is Yiddish curses. Theres a fantastic book full of them I used to have but which has disappeared somewhere. The most well known (I think) is gay kaken aufen yam which translates to go take a sh** in the ocean, but there are much more colorful ones. I did a search on Amazon for the book, but cant seem to find it. The other one I remember is May you grow like an onion, with your head in the ground! 66. bluespapa on December 8, 2008 1:14 am A few more: Putz = schmuck nebbish, hes a nebbish, a nothing, no personality. Gesundt, as in, a gesundt (or gezundt) on old people. Health, straight from German. Schmatte, schmahte, rags, where did you get that schmatte? You couldnt dress up? A tchochka in its diminutive, tchochkale or tchochkele, a plaything, sometimes a gentile youre playing with but wont marry. drek, literally feces, but garbage you want in any event. I think I read in Philip Roth that he grew up thinking the word aggravation was Yiddishand literally I did, too. Helped but not remedied with a seltzer. Cronk, sick, a bisl cronk is what you are right before you die in some dialects. He was a bisl cronk, alov ha-shalom. (rest in peace). Poylishe, a way some have to talk to certain gentiles. Crook, worse than a gonif. Eyin harah, the evil eye, straight from the Hebrew. Punnim, or poonim, face, usually cute. Sheyne, or sheynie, beautiful. A sheynie kop. Beautiful head, but more like cute, a real beauty, a sweetie. Kugl, overly romanticized hard noodle casserole, sometimes onions, sometimes sugar, but not my favorite. Kishke, a dumpling with meat stuffed in it, and therefore kishkes are testicles. I got to pronounce this at a spelling bee to a sixth grader during a year Scripps-Howard
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emphasized foreign words in English, and I looked forward to the kid asking me to use it in a sentence. He thought hed freeze his kishkes off. 67. Ed OLeary on December 8, 2008 3:05 am A shlemiel is someone who can fall on his back and break his nose. 68. Shulie on December 23, 2008 7:31 pm Actually, shikse is derogatory, even more in Yiddish than in English. The meaning of the word is NOT non-Jewish woman and it certainly doesnt mean beautiful. Its an insult. 69. beth johnstone on December 28, 2008 8:45 am my husband loves to say hes kibbitzing .only he doesnt realize it but hes pronouncing it wrong. its KIB butz .not ke BITZ. the emphasis is on the first syllable. so its KIBBIT zing.not Ke BITTZING. 70. Eric H. Roth on December 30, 2008 5:55 pm Great list! The curious might find Leo Rostens book The Joy of Yiddish worth browsing through. 71. mary a on January 13, 2009 11:25 pm great article, i think that one word in yiddish sums up everything, i am an irish catholic, and i love to speak yiddish. 72. joy on January 16, 2009 4:13 pm I think many Yiddish words are like onomatapoeias (sp?) or words that sound like their meanings. It is the picturesque quality of the language that is so appealing to me. 73. Liz on January 23, 2009 12:12 am Can you have pronunciations on all of the words? 74. teacher on January 26, 2009 3:14 pm By the way, kosher is required for all jews, not just observant ones. Though they may be the ones who keep Kosher, that does not mean it is not required for everyone. That is like saying it is only required of upstanding people to drive within the speed limit. It is required for everyone, but only some people actually do it . 75. walid on February 10, 2009 3:28 pm thank you 76. Deirdre on February 15, 2009 4:16 pm It would really add to the functionality of this site if people (like me) could email articles (like this) to our friendseasily. Any plans? Just a thought 77. Deborah on February 17, 2009 1:35 am
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I think this is an awesome website, i grew up with Yiddish and Hebrew in my family and i think they are a beautiful language. 78. helen burdett on February 24, 2009 1:17 am how about tserdrait..meaning mad. love that word. usually accompanied with a Bissel. so discriptive of a neurotic person. 79. Amy W. on February 25, 2009 11:06 am Nu is really used to mean Hurry up or Whats taking you so long? Most people would say the official definition is What are you waiting for, the Messiah? You left out the one I use the most, keinohorah, meaning without the evil eye. It is kind of the Jewish equivalent of knock wood. Machatunim should be included because there is no English equivalent. When two people are married, his parents machatunim are her parents and vise/versa. 80. Maris on February 27, 2009 1:53 pm SHPEIL, SPEIL Now that its almost Purim this word is heard every day in the meaning play as in performance. The Purim Speil is the re-enactment of the story of Queen Esther and her Uncle Mordechai who saved the Jews in ancient Persia under King Achashverosh and the evil Haman. 81. Maris on February 27, 2009 1:56 pm I really enjoyed this. Now I keep the site in my favorates. Thanks. Shabbat Shalom from Israel. 82. Maris on February 27, 2009 2:13 pm KISHKEH Kishkeh is literally intestine. The kishkeh that some people eat (NOT ME!) is the intestine of a cow stuffed like a sausage but with grains, spices, probably onions fried in schmaltz. The stuffed kishkeh is then cooked in a pot with vegetables and water. Lo aleynu, but a lot of people love it. Sottish haggis resembles it. 83. Jenn on March 4, 2009 3:48 am @AltMichael I beg to differ. I grew up in a community with a large Jewish population, and while I am goyische, they became a regular part of my vocabulary. One day I was cleaning house with my German born mother-in-law and told my daughter to clean the schmutz off the floor, and my MIL demanded to know how I knew German words! I use schmutz, schmaltz, schtick, tuchus, tchotchke, spiel, chutzpah, and many more on a daily basis without thinking. 84. Jim Ashley on March 6, 2009 2:04 am I grew up in a Toledo burb with a large Jewish population and lived in New York, so Yiddish (and Italian) expressions are part of my vocab. However, when I attempt to acquaint anthropology and cultural geography students with Yiddish
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words and phrases at the university where I teach, I am greeted with the blank, unknowing stares of the clueless. Here in the Heartland such rich language is practically absent. Perhaps the incessant two-thumb texting that pervades our campuses (what the hell are they saying) serves to narrow the verbal capabilities of the young to a truncated lingo that has turned their expression into a new and sterile teen-speak devoid of the rich meanings of the past. LOL etc. feh! 85. japanese words on March 18, 2009 11:49 am Great list. Most of these I hadnt heard off and the a few that I did I didnt really know where they came from 86. Kathe on April 10, 2009 3:03 am Words Ive known so long I had no idea other people didnt know them. And Im a gentile, nonetheless. 87. Junior on April 10, 2009 7:12 am I love Yiddish for the descriptive nature of the words. They are words with meaning and depth. I am not a Jew but I use these words all the time to fill in for the lack of words in the English language to cover these descriptions and emotions. Great stuff. Great webpage. Thanks! 88. Mark R. on April 11, 2009 11:31 am If anyone would like to further delve into and profoundly understand alittle about Yiddish Civilization and its influence upon the world and the worlds influence upon the rise and fall of a forgotten nation, Paul Kriwaczek wrote a great book entitled: Yiddish Civilization: The Rise & Fall of A Forgotten Nation, A Vintage Book 2005 ISBN10:1-40000-3377-2 89. Schlomo Epsteinbergfishbein on April 15, 2009 1:00 pm Tribalism that has wreaked havoc wherever it went. Do you think that when they decided to despise someone, they picked a J out of the hat? Another fine example of superstition and tribalism that has plagued the Middle East for centuries. 90. jenn on April 19, 2009 4:37 pm for #3, bubbe (bobe), you noted that bubbele is not in dictionaries thats because the -l (-el in transliteration) is a diminutive form. -le is even more so. for example, if a childs name is chanah (hannah), a grandmother might call her chanele (KHahnuh-luh) as an affectionate nickname. see also yentl (like the movie, from yenta), or kindl (little child, from kind, not to be confused with the amazon kindle). it wont be in a dictionary because its a morphological form of another word. thats all =) also, if youre interested in any books on yiddish, look for anything written by neil jacobs or david neal miller, my yiddish professors from the ohio state university. brilliant gentlemen. 91. Don on May 20, 2009 8:35 pm The third word in your list bubbe, (grandmother) is very important, but what
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about Zaydeh (grandfather) which you left out? 92. PetrosinGirpri on May 21, 2009 5:31 am I think 31547 = BillinDetroit. Anyways, mazltof is from Hebrew mazal (where the luck part comes from) + t.ov (Hebrew for good). Does it ever have a bad connotation then? One poster seemed to think it does sometimes but how can one have bad good luck? I ask because I do not know Yiddish, and since words in new linguistic settings can lose part of their meaning or take on a redundant addition. 93. jenn on May 21, 2009 11:35 pm Re: PetrosinGirpri: mazel tov is never used to mean something bad, as far as i know. 94. Miquel on May 31, 2009 3:13 am Shikse: Although people try to make is seem nice, there were stickers on guys dorms rooms in college that said Shikses are for practice. Its not nice, and the thing about Yiddish, while often sweet, when viewed in context can often be alarmingly elitist, racist and mean. Dont be fooled. 95. Miquel on May 31, 2009 3:23 am How come schvartze isnt on your list? 96. Dana on June 23, 2009 1:05 pm Great site My husband is a Goy, and he loves to learn yiddish words from my childhood. One day at the table he announced to my father and my self that he wanted his own Knippis Money. After all the giggles died down we explained to him that knippis money is what the wife hides in her bra in case her husband runs away with the blonde down the street. 97. Hillary on June 29, 2009 7:20 pm One of my favorite expressions is Gai kakhen afenyam Go shit in the ocean. I say it at work a lot. 98. Dana on July 1, 2009 4:38 pm Obviously commenter Miquel needs some help hereWhile the yiddish word shikses does translate to a female non-jew, I am quite sure there is no yiddish word that translates to that childish and ingnorant phrase found in a male college dorm that he reprinted. Language like anything else in the wrong hands can be made ugly and evil. And to answer why the word schvarzte is not on the listsimply, it means the color black..not interesting..but if you want to give it a mean or racist connotation then go ahead if thats where your brain lives. Look around you and see the beauty in the world Miquel..not the ignorant ramblings found in college dorm rooms. 99. Crystal Hicks on July 3, 2009 1:05 am
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My friend and I are trying to remember the Yiddish word for a super salesman. ( You know the one who can sell ice to Eskimos.) Any help with this? Cris 100. TonyB on July 13, 2009 12:06 am My Brooklyn-born father of Irish decent loved Yiddish slang and used it often as I was growing up. One term in particular I remember but cant seem to find online is (phonetically): sim-itz. It usually came out when something needed to be described as a clusterfu*k, total confusion, an out of control situation. Any help on this would be most appreciated! Thanks in advance 101. Don on July 13, 2009 5:36 pm Re: Tzimmes Literally, it refers to a traditional Jewish side dish composed largely of diced/sliced /mashed carrots. Colloquially, the word is used to mean: making a big fuss over a situation, and usually implies that the fuss being made is much greater than is warranted and is referred to as a making big tzimmes over a relatively trivial thing. 102. Jai on July 24, 2009 5:12 pm Lets not overlook: One of my favorites: Farshtunken (stinky, smelly) Shlufen, as in The kids are shlufen in the back seat. Pisher (a litle squirt, a nobody) 103. Matt on August 14, 2009 8:42 am What about: Pupik bellybutton Purimshpieler -a very amateur entertainer(derogatory) Chalish expire, pass away Nachas pride/happiness over particular event or person Nuch besse! even better! (Sarcastically used) Hak meir ein chainik literally, bang on a tea kettle, used for nagging quit hakking me already! Shlep long inconvenient journey Keppy or keppelah head Dray to drone on and on Lozzem gemacht leave em alone Shtimmer bebik a stupid person
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Yachne an annoying gossip or talker, wont shutup Tatelah or mamelah little father or mother, affectionate Yoiner a dense person, a clod (often used ina derogetory way for a fat person, a fat yoiner) Shlong penis Shmekel penis Shtarker a big bruiser Emmis truth Neshtuggidacht an expression of sympathy Rachmunis pity, sympathy Nudnik stupid, annoying but ultimately harmless fellow Kvel to swell with pride Lukshen noodles Shander a public shame or sin a shander fur der goyim a shame before the gentiles a disgrace for the whole jewish community Bobbemeintze nonsense, obviously false stories A note on pronunciation: many words with an er or arwhen spelled I heard as ah growing up, probably bc my family were all new yorkers. So for example shtarker was heard as shtakah,schvartzer was heard asschvatzah and shander was heard as shandeh. 104. Lisa Y. on August 21, 2009 1:37 am So many of these words I grew up with, and use, but didnt even realize they were Yiddush! This is a great site. My grandmother used to sing a song to me when I was very little and draw circles on my belly, singing Measala Mazala and then tickle me. Could that be a Yiddish jingle her mother did to her when she was a little girl? I saw a posting above that mazal means luck, and seeing it spelled that way, it clicked that this little song she sung could be Yiddish. Thanks for any info! 105. mnm on September 13, 2009 4:55 pm To Bryan who said spiel means story in Irish . It doesnt!! Sceal is story in Irish. Cad e an sceal? Whats the story. 106. Niall on September 14, 2009 2:51 pm Isnt the the definition of chutzpah found in the old joke about the man convicted of murdering both his parents, who pleaded for mercy from the court on the grounds that he was an orphan? 107. BRB on September 24, 2009 5:51 am
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Question Where can I find English words translated to Yiddish? 108. BDR on October 7, 2009 4:29 pm One of the best Yiddish sayings ever: Kush meer in toches! meaning Kiss my A When growing up I often remember my parents telling each other to Kush meer in Toches! Always said in jest however As a South African Jew, I have noticed that sadly yiddish terms are being used less and less in SA. Our family do however always throw in some words when appropriate a great language!! 109. Learning Yiddish on October 31, 2009 5:51 am So, by way of review, I could say something like: A shmaltzy young schmuck of a goy was shmoozing a yenta named Gert kibbitzing all cutesy and coy his shtick was so thick she was hurt. Oh stop with your bupkiss and spiel your kvetchings offensive and gay, youre such a non-kosher shlemiel just shtup me and be on your way! 110. Alice in wonderstein on November 26, 2009 1:23 am Great list. By the way u shud add meis kiet n drai mit nir kain kot -which means leave me alone or dont bother me. 111. SholomB on December 8, 2009 3:03 am Until I was about 4 years old, I understood a bissele Yiddish & spoke less, mainly to Boobie [oo as in good, not goof] Sara, or Sonia, my ailing moms mom, then living her last months of life with us. Though here forty years by then, she, like many immigrants, preferred her first language with family & friends & to follow the news, sometimes bis radio, or read aloud to her. So, sitting under the table as she & my mom cooked & talked, I was learning more than kitchen/kiddie Yiddish Then Boobie Sara died, & shockingly took my Yiddish with her, since my mom, rather than continuing to use it with me, her son & only child, held it back, as was also common then, to use as a secret code with adults & talk freely with Yiddish-speaking girlfriends. However, my dad knew much less of it than my mom, having lost his Yiddish-speaking mom when he was only eight to the 1918 Spanish Flu which BTW had actually come her from Asia. Anyway, he & my mom soon resorted to whispering, & yelling, in English. Thus, for about the last sixty years, Yiddish has remained almost literally my emotive mamaloschen, romantically preserved in my memory a a kind of Platonic mother tongue. Schmaltzy or not, its sometimes hard for me to hear or see it without feeling my face start to smile or my eyes tear up. So this site, & especially this discussion, which Ive just read instead of working on a paper due tomorrow at 1PM, is bittersweet for more than one reason. The Nazi war machine didnt just murder a third of world Jewry, it inadvertently vindicated Zionisms ardently national-colonial project as it wiped-out the Bunds competing Yiddishist autonomism, along with the rest of Ashkanzias wonderful borrowed, demotic, mongrel, exilic culture, including of course, its crown jewel (&
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sometime schmuck)sarcastic, secular Yiddish. Still, as a fine & famous goyische US writer, recently deceased, was fond of, & famous for, saying, There are no unmixed blessings. Amen I guess. 112. Kellie F. on December 14, 2009 2:37 am There should really be info about how to pronounce these words!! Glaring, glaring omission! 113. Rebekah Phillips on January 7, 2010 12:18 am I am doing an assignment on Ellis Island I need to know what how much is in Yiddish!!! please help me 114. Noghar on January 10, 2010 12:07 pm Hey, its your assignment. Write all of it in Yiddish if you want though you better check first that your teacher can read it. (weird question) 115. emanuel on January 18, 2010 2:44 pm I like to learn this language I am loving this beautiful language please if your can help me i am emanuel, add me a this facebook please 116. Jewish chick who knows yiddish and german on January 29, 2010 9:59 pm Speaking schwarza, it is NOT a bad word! It only means BLACK. If you know German at all, SCHWARZ = BLACK. A schwarza is a black person. PERIOD. It is we American Jews with pcness that attached the N-word connotation to it. It does NOT MEAN that at all. SCHWARZA= BLACK PERSON, only. 117. Dick Hurts on January 30, 2010 6:52 am The best part of any Jewish joke book is the glossary. Any Momzer knows that!. Try these on Poopik Technically a belly button, used in Yiddish to denote something small & insignificant. Shikker Drunkard Chozzer Pig or Glutton 118. Baruch Atta on February 4, 2010 5:16 pm So fewer Arabic words have entered The only truly Arabic words used in English are Bakshish bribe Hashish hashish Assasin assasin oh and Algebra
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119. Noghar on February 4, 2010 6:18 pm 15 seconds Googling reveals 900 commonly used English words that are Arabic in origin, from admiral and albatross, through muslin and mattress, to zero everyone should know the last one, since Arabic philosophers revolutionised mathematics by inventing the concept. Its a pity that a thread on a lovely language like Yiddish should be hijacked by people wanting to smear and misrepresent other languages 120. Baruch Atta on February 4, 2010 7:11 pm Dear Noghar It is not amazing that you can read my mind? Who is wanting to smear and misrepresent? Thank you for the update. I really was not aware that there were more Arabic words in English. Perhaps you could write an article on Arabic in English usage for this website. I would like to read it. Sincerely Baruch 121. ShalomB on February 4, 2010 9:08 pm Noghar, Medieval Christiandom, aka Europe, emerging from its Dark Ages, learned both algebra & zero from its Arab neighbors & opponents, along with a lots else. However, these technologies had been developed centuries earlier by Hindu mathematicians, who had themselves borrowed some ideas from classical Greece. 122. Csprrr on February 10, 2010 6:45 pm in Amsterdam Dutch, but hey, we got (among others): mazzel! or mazzels! meaning (informally) bye! or see you! though maybe still with connotation of good luck or success, which I like. I also like feh! a lot, but learnt only now its from Yiddish. 123. xxSay on February 15, 2010 4:38 am @Ruby. I almost didnt give you the pleasure of acknowledgement. Yet, here I am. No one here claimed anything even remotely near the thought that Yiddish isnt made up of other languages. Infact, many people here told stories about relating these words to other words they knew. If you were paying attention or read the other comments you might have picked up on that. But I have a feeling you were here to vent out some pent up frustration, and I honestly dont think this is the place. Also, I noticed that you speak English. Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time, the Germanic lands were made of different tribes. Cultures began to spread, as cultures will do, and English started forming just West of these tribes. There were some battles, and the places forming English generally put the losing side of the German language inside the Commoners words that everyone would use, such as Hand. French became the influence on the winning side, in
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those who gained money for things such as Antiques and Banquets, French words that became common English. There was also a mix of Latin. The end. Maybe youd want to consider where your own words derive from before you use them to slander another culture, no? 124. xxSay on February 15, 2010 5:02 am Maybe I was a little harsh in the above comment. Not on you, Ruby- no, you need harsh words to help understand some ideals obviously not ever placed on you. What I want is to make clear that I love the German language. It is what I took in High School and I know more about it than I do Yiddish, which is saying something considering I am not at all German and half my relatives are Jewish. (I came to this site to help with the balance of that) I went to Germany with meine Mutti for my sweet sixteen, and it was a gorgeous and wondrous land. I dont think they would appreciate your help, however, in trying to award them the real credit, considering how hard the German government works to remain neutral. yiddish is german, and dont insult the germans by claiming you invented it. I adore your grammar. Proper capitalization and apostrophe placement must not be an important enough concept in your love so deep for whatever language you are representing to have shone through your hateful comments on how another form of words is written. That is all. 125. jenn on February 16, 2010 4:35 am @ xxSay i by no means want to make you think that i agree with ruby in any way; i actually have a degree in yiddish and can draw you a map on a beverage napkin at a bar to show the 4 dialects of yiddish and how it evolved alongside german. (oddly enough, ive done just that people make strange requests when they find out you have a degree in something theyve never heard of. especially when drinking!) that said, i just had to jump in after your grammar comment as a former proofreader (yiddish major, remember? ha!) i definitely feel the pain of improper apostrophe use; that said, i dont feel the same about capitalization, and that actually grew out of my time studying yiddish. writing yiddish (or hebrew, for that matter), there is only one case and everything works out just fine! i do use capitalization regularly for emphasis, and for some acronyms, and of course in professional writing. just thought id throw that out there! im definitely with you for the rest of your post(s). it bothers me when yiddish is described as a mix of german and hebrew, or german written with the hebrew alphabet because neither is true. 126. ShalomB on February 16, 2010 5:33 am Jenn, Please say more about your rejection of the characterization of Yiddish being, German written with the Hebrew alphabet. 127. Moishe Pippik on February 16, 2010 5:38 am
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Enough Already!! The responses to the Yiddish Handbook are supposed to be discussions of Yiddish Words, not a forum for neurotics or should I say meshugenahs venting their problems 128. jenn on February 16, 2010 6:10 am @ShalomB you can take an entire class on the topic, but the short version is that yiddish and german evolved alongside one another. german was spoken germany, but yiddish was spoken throughout ashkenaz from the western boundary which was the same as the westernmost edge of germany, stretching east to russia (belarus, lithuania, rumania, poland, etc.) while western german sounds very close to german (in terms of vowel pronunciation, etc.), eastern german does not i used to try to compare vocab pronunciation with a german friend, and the closest comparison we could make is someone speaking a southern dialect of american english (e.g. south carolina, or alabama) talking with someone from australia you have a lot of the same words, but with very, very different vowel pronunciations, and a good deal of different vocabulary because you have loanwords from different languages. dont let this be misleading, though while these examples are different dialects of the same language, both german and yiddish are unique languages, each with their own various dialects. bottom line, yiddish and german are not the same language although they are both germanic languages. yiddish was the third most widely spoken germanic language in the world, behind english and german, prior to wwII. they are in the same language family just as hebrew and arabic are both semitic languages this does not mean they are the same language written with different alphabets. but they evolved alongside one another, in a similar geographic area, and therefore have many similarities. the same can be said for the romance languages, sugh as spanish and italian, which both evolved from latin (amongst others, including french, portuguese, etc.), and do not have entirely separate alphabets, but certainly differing characters/diacritics. i have not studied german extensively, but i do know there are very different rules for constructions in german than there are in yiddish. (yiddish does not have the long compound words youll find in german.) ive already gone on too long, so in an attempt to avoid going into specifics about morphology and other areas i struggle to remember without consulting old textbooks, if youre interested, i highly recommend anything on the topic by neil jacobs. a good start would be _Yiddish: a linguistic introduction_ By Neil G. Jacobs. 129. jenn on February 16, 2010 6:12 am oh dear, in the first paragraph, western german should be western yiddish, same for eastern german > eastern yiddish sorry, its after 1am and i think ive stayed awake longer than i should have. 130. Maeve on February 16, 2010 1:47 pm I just got around to reading this fantastic post. It brought back my German grannys voice. 131. ShalomB on February 16, 2010 4:11 pm Jenn, Thanks so muchreally appreciate the indicative remarks. If I get a taste for linguistic detail, Ill check out Jacobs 132. xxSay on February 16, 2010 5:16 pm
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@Jenn I wasnt aware that there was only one case in Yiddish. It actually seems like a good idea not to have to worry about capitalization and focus solely on your words. Unfortunately for my brain, I grew up capitalizing English and adding in even more upper-case letters in my German writings, and although its a cool idea, I dont think I could handle it. Thanks for the info, however. Its fun learning things like that and really, this site was made just for the purpose of doing so. @Ruby Very well Ruby, (what luck for you that I learned something) I wont reprimand you on that part of your post, but I still feel the need to call you on your attitude. 133. Baruch Atta on February 16, 2010 7:11 pm Jenn draw you a map on a beverage napkin at a bar to show the 4 dialects of yiddish and how it evolved Its one of those things that you knew existed but nobody ever mentioned the four dialects of Yiddish. I never. But then, I can understand some Yiddish, but not all. Die Gemmora ist Bleib schwere. But I am interested what are the four dialects of Yiddish? 134. stedgy on February 21, 2010 1:41 am did you know that schmackel means willy? 135. Sandy on March 11, 2010 10:37 pm A word I use all the time is Shmeimeaning to shop, but not too seriously. Shmeiing is sort of like window shopping, but you might buy something. That word has found its way into the vocabulary of all my friends-Jewish and not. My Hispanic co-worker asked me if I wanted to go shmeiing after work today! Sandy 136. alpna on March 13, 2010 5:53 am this is the best book for me but i want to see basic rules of grammer .which didn i find. 137. jenn on March 13, 2010 8:55 pm @ baruch atta: Its one of those things that you knew existed but nobody ever mentioned the four dialects of Yiddish. I never. But then, I can understand some Yiddish, but not all. Die Gemmora ist Bleib schwere. But I am interested what are the four dialects of Yiddish? the easiest way to explain without the ability to draw a picture is to have you imagine a rectangle thinking of pre-wwII europe, on the left (west) is germany, on the right (east) is lithuania, romania, poland, russia, etc. the 2 main dialect groups are western and eastern yiddish, divided that way. im not as familiar with western yiddish because it is much closer to german in terms of pronunciations (as
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they evolved side-by-side) and we studied primarily eastern yiddish. i believe there are subdivisions within western yiddish, though, perhaps not as clearly differentiated as those in the east. within eastern yiddish, there are 3 major subdivisions: northeastern yiddish (which we studied, specifically as spoken in belarus, russia, etc.), southeastern yiddish (more like what was spoken in the areas including romania), and central yiddish (spoken in the areas in between, including poland). along with the different dialects came different customs and cultural differences; this is similar to how in the united states you have american english divided, simply speaking, into 3 dialects* northern, central (or midland), and southern, but within each of those dialects there are sub-dialects (e.g. boston vs. brooklyn vs. minnesota in the north, washington dc vs. pittsburgh/appalachia in the midland dialect, or williamsburg va vs. tennessee vs. texas in the south). * NOTE: i used the 3 major geographic dialect groups, and did not include AAVE aka ebonics, for the sake of simplicity not because i discount AAVE, but because it doesnt fit perfectly into my analogy of yiddish vs. american english linguistic geography since its a different type of dialect group not bound by geographic constraints hope that was helpful and not entirely confusing! -j 138. Big Steve from Houston (by Gawd) Texas on March 18, 2010 11:52 pm Weigh two meny mispelings hear. BTW, Yiddish is empirically a language derived from German. There is no argument even among those who profess to have college degrees on the subject. Sure, other stuff crept in due to emigration, immigration and the tight Jewish community. But just like Pennsylvania Dutch, like duh, its German. 139. jenn on March 19, 2010 2:20 pm i DO have a college degree in yiddish. im not sure if you made it down to my most recent comment (in response to another commenter), but while yiddish is a germanic language (as are english, and swedish), it is NOT derived from german. please look into finding books from an actual academic/linguistic perspective, such as _yiddish: a linguistic introduction_ by neil jacobs. 140. Robin on March 21, 2010 3:41 am @ AltMichael Finally, Yiddish is the only Germanic language that is not written in the Roman alphabet. It is written in the Hebrew alphabet. Writing systems have nothing to do with the origins or relatedness of languages. The German language belongs to the indo-european language family and uses the Roman alphabet. Persian (farsi) is likewise an indo-european language; however, it uses the Arabic alphabet and in some regions the Cyrillic alphabet. Which does not detract from the main thrust of your argument, although your statement is incorrect. 141. Azar on April 27, 2010 10:46 am Fascinating! Thank you for all the comments here. I was under the impression that Yiddish not only iincluded German, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Russian, but also French as the servants to the Russian court were Yiddish speaking Jews, and the Russian court spoke exclusively en Francais. Can you elucidate on the veracity of this point? Many thanks,
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Azar 142. rebecca on July 3, 2010 3:59 pm It was an interesting list of Jiddisch words and I have only one remake on the last word on your list. Jiddisch Kopf and Goyim kopf and want to remark, as a goy, that meanign of these words work for me the other way around. This sounds only fair I believe.;-) 143. call me Ishmael on July 5, 2010 3:30 pm HOLLYIDDISH Some years ago I discovered that Gabby Hayes nickname, Crazy Old Galoot was derived from/related to Jewish peddlers in the West, living far from their families/synagogues, scratching out a living as the ultimate non-conformists to WASP culture, living in the /galoot/ (diaspora). Last night, after sundown, I watched Bogart & Bacall in The Big Sleep on our free netflix account. Suddenly I hear Bogie referred to as a Shamus/Shammus and thus recalled countless 30s to 50s movies and tv shows referring to private detectives and even occasionally to police with that term, and then the penny dropped: those guardians of law & order, truth, justice and the American way, were named after the guardian candle on the Menorah, the one that brings light to all the others, and to the guardian/ custodian of a synagogue. How many other hidden HollYiddishisms have we missed? 144. Lars H on July 6, 2010 9:16 am Hej Great site and a very interesting discussion. @ Jenn . You wrote yiddischit is NOT derived from german and that sounds quite odd to me. When small groups of Ashkenazi jews settled in the Rhineland in the Middle Ages, they developed a Germanic language so close to German that anyone with knowledge of German or any Scandinavian language (I am Swedish) could grasp the content. I have also seen some yiddisch texts written in latin letters and it seems like the grammar is very close to German. If Yiddisch did not derive from German, either the German language derived from Yiddisch (which it did not, since German came to the Rhineland long before Yiddisch), or the two languages have different roots. But since the two languages seem to share grammar and most of the words I do not think that you can seriously claim that they have different roots, at least not from a linguistic point of view. So as I see it Yiddisch is a germanic language, it has derived from German and it has over the centuries evolved further away from German, both in spelling, pronounciation and by adding new loan words. Or did I miss anything? 145. Baruch Atta on July 6, 2010 1:07 pm Crazy Old Galoot I can not imagine that galoot is related in Yiddish to golus (exile). I thought galoot was Irish. Shamash is Hebrew for servant. So, the candle in the middle of the menora is the servant for the other eight. The custodian of a synagogue is the servant to the synagogue. Shamash does not have the connotation of a slave/servant, it usually is
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more like public servant, i.e. police officer, mayor, teacher, etc. Therefore, as a metaphore, a PI is a shamash. Sort of. I cant believe that this thread is still going. Enough with Yiddish already! Pick on Irish maybe? 146. jenn on July 6, 2010 11:40 pm @lars you are right, they are very similar in many ways, but that does not mean one was derived from the other. they evolved alongside one another in a particular geographic area. western yiddish (spoken in areas in and around germany) sounds much closer to german than central or northeastern yiddish (spoken in russia, lithuania, etc.) same language, different dialects, much like the differences in pronunciation/vocabulary between alabama, and pennsylvania, and minnesota. german, yiddish, english, swedish, etc. are all germanic languages with many similarities in grammar, syntax, morphology, etc. just as hebrew and arabic are both semitic languages, and how italian, portuguese, spanish, and french are all romance languages. much as the romance languages all evolved from a common ancestor (latin), the germanic languages all evolved from an older, pre-german (or proto-german) language. to suggest that yiddish is derived from german is similar to insisting that french and spanish are derived from italian since latin was the language spoken in rome. a more accurate understanding is that these language families are made up of members who evolved alongside one another from a common ancestor, with many similarities in structure as a result of that commonality, however also many differences thanks to the geographic, cultural, and religious separation. i know ive said it before, but i really must recommend the works of neil jacobs, especially _Yiddish: A Linguistic Introduction_ http://www.amazon.com /Yiddish-.....038;sr=1-3 147. Lars H on July 7, 2010 4:34 am @ Jenn: Im afraid your our comparison Latin/Pre German doesnt work, due to timelines. First, yes. At some point in history there was a common Proto Germanic language that later evolved into a number of different languages. But! 1000 years back (give or take a century), when the Jewish settlers came to the Rhineland, the majority population did not speak Germanic or Pre German. At that point the proto germanic language had since long already evolved into (very simplified) Anglo-Saxon (see Beowulf) Danish Tongue spoken in Scandinavia (Swedish has derived from this), Gothic (East Germanic, extinct today) and Diutisc Medieval German (Althochdeutsche) for the language of people (as opposed to Latin). So, when a small population, previously not very well known as speakers of any Germanic language, settles in a German speaking area where they become a very small minority, and they start to speak a germanic language, how could that language not be derived from the language of the majority? And further on, in the Middle Ages I have understood that Yiddisch was called taytsh ( ), compared to tiutsch (the name om German had developed). This is not about history, culture or ethnicity, my view concerns only the linguistic aspects. 148. jenn on July 7, 2010 5:50 am sounds like you should read the book =) 149. Annabell_Leigh on July 18, 2010 4:26 pm Thanks to Michael for the great post and thanks to all the commenters who
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provided additional helpful info. Im trying to achieve authenticity in a Jewish character Im writing. His father came to the U.S. from Poland when he was a little boy, after his grandparents were killed during WWII. My character grew up in New Jersey in a Polish immigrant community with a significant Jewish population. I use Yiddish in both his internal and external dialogue. Do you prefer to read Yiddish and/or Hebrew words that have apostrophes and other punctuation or the plainly-written words (as you see in Michaels list above)? Does the spelling used, i.e. using the s version of a word vs the z version, have any significance and does it need to be consistent between different words? By way of example, the word shikse in Michaels list can be written as shiksa. Would the character who used the e version of this word also need to use the e version of other words? I appreciate any thoughts you have. I also welcome links to online resources that might help me develop this character authentically. Thanks! Anna 150. Baruch Atta on July 19, 2010 2:45 pm In English, you can read a misspelled word and still understand it. In Yiddish, you have to. That said, I would spell the words like this. baleboste balabasta bupkes bubkis kvetsh kvetch mishegas mishugas plotz platz mishpocheh mishpacha shlemiel shlamiel shlimazel shlamazel shikse shiksa 151. JUNE on August 18, 2010 8:46 pm Look, Yiddish is a simple cultural identity. When youre traveling and you hear someone speak Yiddish (or Hebrew), Ill bet it registerswhether or not you reply. You can call it slang. You can call it vulgar. You can turn up your nose or down your thumb. But you know what it is, and so do I. When Eastern European Jews were forced to flee (often), what did they take with them? The Torah, their fiddles, and Yiddish. 152. Barbara on August 25, 2010 1:56 am The Jewish side of my family comes from Odesa (Ukraine) and most of the above were used by my family on a daily basis, especially: (most of these will be misspelled, I never saw them written down) schmear (a touch of cream cheese or butter on bread or bagels) Svelt (curvy woman) kinna hera (some us it different but we used it like she finally met someone/bought a house etc, kinna hera
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OyVey izmere (oh god, poor me) putz/schmuck, shmendrick: in other words, idiot chuzpa : brass ones! or spunk Mashugunawent a little crazy, yenta: all up in your business Mamala: term of endearment towards a mother figure Bubula: same thing except this can be said to a man or Bubbee schiztke: we used as non jewish female (in Phila it kinda meant a jewish guy who dated but not married a non jewish gal) goyum: male non jew (my dad lol, mom was jewish, dad catholic) Schwartza: we only referred this for a black individual in a non derogatory manner. It was not a replacement for N Philadelphia Jews got along very well with the black community at the time I grew up because we had a lot of holocaust survivors and they felt like they understood discrimination and respected each other. I often saw Jews with numbers on their arms when I was young. Philadelphians just loved Sammy Davis Jr! 153. Robert Harvey on August 26, 2010 8:01 pm This is a great site. I had numerous Jewish friends some years ago till I moved and lost touch. Their conversation was always sprinkled with Yiddish words that had me saying Whats that mean? Whats that mean? They thought I was meshuggenah.(spelling) 154. klaxon on August 30, 2010 8:21 am Many words seem to originate in the German language, or is it perhaps the other way round? 155. David G. on August 30, 2010 8:30 pm I also would say That Yidish comes from the German that is why you would say Vertashed in Yidish which meens Verdeutshed Take the word Disapointed in Yidish Enteushed which is German and also a lot of words come from Polish Shpilkis in Toches meening Pins up your behind 156. elzeide on September 19, 2010 5:35 pm Perhaps Michael can confirm this. Meshigene or meshuga is an Hebrew word that entered German language. Perhaps it is not extremely common, but a german will understand meshuga, and that word came from hebrew (crazyness). A chilean writer (Dorfman) once wrote against cultural colonization from English to Latin America countries, but many years later he wrote that he was mistaken. Language interaction is a two way road. Jatima Tova al kulam !!! 157. Twist on September 21, 2010 1:00 am
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Yes toneii , Jews know exactly how to refer stuff to them self, like Homos, Jerusalem, their language etc. 158. Lars on September 21, 2010 9:33 am Hej What about mischmasch? Its a quite common expression in Swedish, and is used to decribe something that is messy, some sort of a mixup, a patchwork, a bad blending. Im not sure whether this is a loan from Yiddich or from German or both. 159. Fran Blaye on September 22, 2010 7:03 am Im a shicksa, but have learned a great deal of Yiddish over the years, at least partly because I worked in theater for 10 years. Yiddish is definitely the 2nd language of theater, and the 1st show I stage managed was Fiddler. The cast was about 60% Jewish, and my Yiddish vocabulary grew by leaps & bounds. But I can never remember how to spell tchotchkes, which is how I found this site. Yiddish so incredibly descriptive that it often takes a full paragraph in English to define one Yiddish word. Nialls post above on the definition of chutzpah is my favorite. And the slight, but definite distinctions between words like meshuggineh, mishegoss and meshugge. They all sort of mean crazy, but. For any of you who enjoy science fiction, theres a wonderful book out there that uses a great deal of Yiddish. Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction. there are 13 stories, an introduction by Isaac Asimov, and Harlan Ellison added a wonderful glossary of Yiddish words at the end. It was first printed in the 70s, but sites like abebooks,com may have copies. Mazel Tov! 160. Gene Nielsen on October 21, 2010 4:05 am Is there any kind of relationship between Yiddish and Gaelic? 161. Shaine Maidel(ach) on October 26, 2010 9:13 am Fantastic site, wonderful contributors so many meshugeners! so many mavens! Who knew? Can anyone tell me the origins of something that sounded like lig eingelecht meaning put up with it? My late mother used to tell a story involving this phrase which always had her creased up in laughter before she got to the end, but I never managed to find out what was so funny about it. And quite a lot of things had that effect on her, so it may remain unknown, and I may just have to lig eingelecht. 162. Peter on October 27, 2010 7:51 pm Is there any kind of relationship between Yiddish and Gaelic? Very distant: theyre both Indo-European languages; theres about 6000 years of language development between them, though. 163. Schedule on October 30, 2010 12:50 am Best you should edit the page subject The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know to something more generic for your webpage you make. I enjoyed the post still.
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164. ShalomB on November 1, 2010 5:43 pm Im afraid its even more distant than thatat least according to most philologists & linguists; heres a typical comment from About.com: Hebrew is not an Indo-European language. It is part of another language group that has been called Hamito-Semitic but is now usually called Afro-Asiatic. The languages of this group include Arabic, Aramaic (the language of Jesus), Phoenician, Akkadian (the language in which ancient cuneiform texts were written), ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Somali, and many more. 165. Lars on November 1, 2010 7:40 pm @ShalomB. Hebrew is not an Indo-European language, but Yiddisch is. This is true, even if Yiddisch has borrowed many words from Hebrew. For obvious reasons we do not know how far back there was a shared Proto Indo-Germanic language (that later evolved into Gaelic, Yiddisch and other languages) , but 6 000 years as Peter suggests is perhaps correct. 166. Baruch Atta on November 3, 2010 11:17 am I was in the doctors office reading old copies of Readers Digest, and in one, the Increase Your Word Power quiz has all YIDDISH words! I guess RD ran out of English words to quiz on, and needed to use Yiddish. 167. Baruch Atta on November 3, 2010 11:22 am Gene Nielsen on October 21, 2010 4:05 am Is there any kind of relationship between Yiddish and Gaelic? Yes. It is the same as the relationship between Shlamazel and Shlamiel. See previous posts. 168. Lars H on November 3, 2010 12:25 pm Hej I have surfed around a bit looking for Yiddisch texts written in Latin alfabet, but havent been very successful. Anyone that could give any online or offline suggestions? 169. elzeide on November 3, 2010 1:52 pm to Lars H on November 3, 2010 12:25 pm Im not sure if you will find what you look for but you should visit Mendele, that is the Yiddish site on internet. I knew they used to have transliterated texts, but actually I never surfed Mendele. According to a definition, Mendele is a moderated mailing list dedicated to the lively exchange of views, information, news and just about anything else related to the Yiddish And you will find it here: http://mendele.commons.yale.edu/wp/ Good luck! Mazeltov ! For Baruch Atta: what an emotive name you choose ! Congratulations! 170. Lars H on November 5, 2010 8:43 am
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@ elzeide Thank you for the link. I hadnt seen Mendele before. Most Yiddisch texts are written in Yiddisch letters, but I have found a few transliterated texts, for which I am grateful 171. Simca on November 5, 2010 9:15 am Thanks for posting, we are orthodox and sometimes i dont know how to explain the yiddish phrases or words to my friends, so i reccomend them to you! Also, some phrases i wasnt familiar with, which is nice. THANKS AGAIN! -Simca Leah 172. cindy on November 19, 2010 5:21 pm My everyday words huh-yo-who- knew 21.oy vey Exclamation of dismay, grief, or exasperation. The phrase oy vey iz mir means Oh, woe is me. Oy gevalt! is like oy vey, but expresses fear, shock or amazement. When you realize youre about to be hit by a car, this expression would be appropriate. 24.shlep To drag, traditionally something you dont really need; to carry unwillingly. When people shlep around, they are dragging themselves, perhaps slouchingly. On vacation, when Im the one who ends up carrying the heavy suitcase I begged my wife to leave at home, I shlep it. 173. JZ on November 23, 2010 5:53 am Language lol Lovely language personaly. Would be nice more people command a comprehension of yiddish, and, we all know we command a comprehension Yet There are many more forms of language such as body language, etc I honestly have a deep emotional sense for spoken language yet fear the emotional bond/attachment is borne more out of my fear of the fetlocks/bondages of humans deciding to ground freedom with translation. Whenever I read this information Im reminded of my awareness to the strong reality of my life being translated & vice/versa. I changed my name, in part, because my original name reminded me What are you waiting for, the messiah? Hurry up! and the name change is my expression of I stopped questioning humans and moved into the next phase. Written language to me is a representation of raw creative power studied and then with minmal contamination communicated into visual form I speak/see therefore the program has been executed. I think this accutely with greek, etc With the arrival of voice command a thousand years anyone? Helpful to know yes! Explained why here. Im just concerned a little help might be required protecting people with names newbies to a language might suddenly become suspicious of. Hopefully we have
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more heart to understand this point than the oil we use to. And with that my entire experience of yiddish changes again 174. JZ on November 23, 2010 6:14 am I know my statement verse slight from the sites purpose (hardly offered any necessary words), I just find my own domination of the game of rock Life often bares result by adhereing to others rules. I must command a dominate european heritage through the protocols of europeans choices while living in australia. Helps me that much! (Heres) to my french girlfriends Dominating the competion Translate Life is consuming, especial as a very expresive entity. I just find conversation with humans in all of this more effective subjected to spanish inquisiton protocol, and there is still way too much already here. Human difficulty I find is borne of humans explaining implied truth for all life and then freed to explore futher in the universes. Dont like what I say Think I really like the true fact spanish inquistion spirituality works for me keeps paragraphs effective. 175. Barry Willig on November 27, 2010 8:56 pm Schwarze and Weisse (white) if used interchangeably or to describe accurately one or the other are perfectly fine. Many older Germans and German-Americans recognize Yiddish from their youth. In Germany they were employed as shop terms or street slogans, and in pre-Pearl Harbor America they were well known to German-American youth who were taught how different they were from Jews in the atmosphere of the German-American Bund and Hitlers radio speeches. As for Third reich-era young Germans who are now among the elderly in the U.S. or back in Germany and Austria, there are also the memories of Nazi propaganda applied to Jews and Yiddish-speaking Jews. 176. Jane Grodin on December 8, 2010 5:07 pm I am a yiddisha maidela and grew up with grandparents who only spoke yiddish. My parents did not want me to have an accent so did notteach me yiddish. I understand many words but would love to speak it. I was the shana maidela of the family (beautiful girl) 177. Robert on December 10, 2010 8:52 pm Your Yiddish isnt quite right. Please consult with a Jewish authority next time you try a compilation like this. 1. Speil isnt from the German anything. The Yiddish and German words share a common root 2. Kosher is from a Hebrew root meaning proper. It has nothing to do with orthodoxy in Judaism. 178. Lars on December 11, 2010 9:27 pm Robert: Speil, or rather Spiel (my guess this is the word you refer to), is by origin a Germanic word well established in German and in the Scandinavian languages. But at the time Yiddish was created, this word had by far left the Proto Germanic
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era and was then a German, not a Germanic, word. Therefore I would say that Yiddish and German words does not share a common root, but Yiddish has borrowed the word from German. Regardless of anything, one must accept the fact that when Yiddish was created, the German language, as one of several versions of the Germanic language group, was already existing and separated from other Germanic languages. So there should be quite few words where Yiddish and German share the same root. If you think that is the case with Spiel please present facts to support that opinion. 179. elzeide on December 11, 2010 11:33 pm As Robert correctly pointed out (Dec,10 2010) the explanation about kosher on the original post of this site must be corrected. Kosher means what is proper, and is used on the jewish dietary laws to separate what the jewish people can eat and what is forbidden to us. Despite of what is written on the initial explanation of Kosher, those laws are mandatory for all jews. For many reasons many jews dont follow kashrut but the law exist. This custom, of ignoring the law, unfortunately repeats with other parts of the law, like working on Shabbat or during the Jaguim (high hollidays). Note: Im not a 100% kosher jew (sorry), neither I am a chacham, so surely you will find a much better explanation than mine in the future. 180. Ellen on December 17, 2010 6:07 pm Thank you all so much for this site. I have it bookmarked now and will check in now and again to see whats new. Thanks also to the poster who put up the link to Yiddish Language Lessons. I definitely intend to try it out. Yiddish along with Basque are languages that are very difficult to learn because so few courses are available and also they are very region specific dialects and difficult for beginners to get a handle on. Anyway thanks again. I have really enjoyed my time here. 181. elzeide on December 25, 2010 9:10 pm To Ellen on December 17, 2010 6:07 pm and To Jane Grodin on December 8 If you want to learn Yiddish, you should visit the website of the YIVO (or IWO). As they said in their webpage YIVO continues to serve as the world headquarters of the Yiddish language.. And besides IWOs own classes, they surely know about classes at universities or other centers. Indeed its a difficult task for begginers, so Good Luck !!! YIVO page: http://www.yivoinstitute.org/a.....38;aid=146 I really love this Yiddish Handbook page, as it allows an easy and productive communication between Yiddish lovers. 182. Ruchie on January 5, 2011 12:00 pm
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tchatchke not to be confused with tsatske Yiddish for bimbo You might say: I picked up a few tchatchkes on my trip to Niagra Falls. Quite different from: I picked up a few tsatskes on my trip 183. YakDriver on January 8, 2011 4:05 pm I loved the post. I find it interesting, though, that so many people use the comments as a forum for written combat. It feels rather like the Alamo with people drawing lines in the sand. Accept that this was an attempt to share some cultural diversity and not an attempt to establish any racial superiority. I, for one, was pleased to read information that explained many of the Yiddish phrases that Ive heard from Jewish friends. For that I offer my thanks. As for those who are so combative, give it a rest. Im sure that your opinion MUST be correct because it is your opinion, but keep it to yourself. That way you can be secretly superior to the rest of us. Its much more gratifying to know secrety you are superior than to expose yourself to the chance that others might not believe it. 184. YMedad on January 9, 2011 3:53 am Well, if you have tuches, you should have tsitskes (sing. tsitskeh), boobs, which should not be confused with tzitzes, which is a term for the small, under-the-shirt tallit Orthodox Jews wear, also called arba kanfos in Yiddish. Nor confuse it with tzaddik, who is someone who doesnt quite know about tsitskes. 185. Baruch Atta on January 11, 2011 1:39 pm YakDriver : concerning your post on Jan 8: Is that your opinion? Or is it a FACT? 186. Elisabeth Moses on January 15, 2011 9:31 am Im interested in learning ho w to speak Yiddish. What would you suggest? 187. Tsada Kay on January 17, 2011 7:54 pm Required reading for all smart-asses! Great list. Thanks! 188. Don Woods on January 22, 2011 2:19 am Yiddish: Mentsh An honorable, decent person, an authentic person, a person who helps you when you need help. Can be a man, woman or child. Mensch in German means human. Yiddish: Mishegas Insanity or craziness. A meshugener is a crazy man. If you want to insult someone, you can ask them, Does it hurt to be crazy? Mischgas in German is often referred to laughing gas. There are way too many to add. 189. Jay Lewis on January 25, 2011 4:11 pm I enjoyed reading the 40 yiddish words as well as the posts. . I understood there were two versions of Yiddish, the Spanish version and the German version. The
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German version was used by Jews during WWII because they were prohibted from using Hebrew. This version is universally used today. The Germans obviously accepted Yiddish as German, and never became the wiser. Yiddish in Isreal ismt used like it is in Europe and the United States, and if it is, it is totally different. One good book you might want to read is The Joys Of Yinglish by Leo Rosten, and is 584 pages. I think it is available from Amazon. Drop Dead is a yiddish word, which means go to hell. The Jew who converted to Catholicism and became a priest, opened his sermon with My fellow Goyim. Shalom 190. Joster on January 31, 2011 9:05 pm Hello. Is there a standardized spelling of Yiddish in Latin characters? I understand that properly written Yiddish is written in Hebrew characters. Obviously, there would be a lot of regional variation in a language spoken in such a wide area in Europe. Also, is there a geographical birthplace for Yiddish? I would suppose it would be somewhere in modern Germany? As for the many comments as to whether Yiddish is a Germanic language, or is derived from German is sort of a non-issue. Hochdeutsch was not standardized until the Nineteenth Century. The German language is still going evolving to this day. Prior to the political organization of Germany in the late Nineteenth century there was (and continues to be) a great deal of dialectical variation. The fact that Yiddish is written in Hebrew characters and incorporates loan words from Hebrew, Slavic languages, Romance languages, and others makes it more divergent from many other German dialects. At what point a spoken idiom is considered a language and not a dialect is largely abstract, political, and subjective. If Yiddish is rightfully a separate language (as I would consider it), it has just diverged from the Germanic family tree more recently than other Germanic languages such as English or Danish. In any case, I love Yiddish and love using many of the expressions and words found above. Thanks for a lively discussion! 191. Ogmios on February 5, 2011 2:27 am Self patronizing at the least. Yiddish is with no doubt an allegory of many languages however it is not an invention per se. It is the native tongue of the Khazar tribes that became the Ashkenazi. I can easily say Good day the implied sentiment is just that, to have a good day Why say Shalom when I can say Good day. 192. Vic on February 7, 2011 7:24 pm Its curious how there can be no discussion of anything related to being Jewish without racist comments creeping in. What a shame. What began as an exploration of language ends up being a commentary for racist attitudes. Yiddish words come from a culture, not merely a language derived from other languages. Until WWIi there was a Yiddish culture. It was rich and thrived under circumstances less than ideal. Certainly, there are words of German origin (as well
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as Russian, Polish, Hebrew, and even English), but Yiddish words are colored by Yiddish culture. Is this threatening? It shouldnt be. 193. Kate on February 10, 2011 2:57 am Can someone please explain the meaning of the word sprinza and I am definitely misspelling it. Im guessing it is along the lines of Shickza but would appreciate knowing the real meaning of the word. Im not even sure if it is Yiddish. However any help is appreciated! Thank you in advance. 194. Ogmios on February 10, 2011 3:35 am Vic The sad part about your comment is that it is you that introduce the thought of racism. Q. Are Jews a race? NO they are not When did you lose your semitic connection/s NB Jews are not Semitic in the main they are Turkic Finn aka White Fellas. Once again Yid is the native tonue of your Khazar fore fathers -FACT. So is there a Catholic race NO. I have noticed that when a Jew feels threatened that racism and crazy come to pass. I wish the Torah followers all the best As for Mishna we are all Goy. Now if separatism is not in fact racism what is? 195. Crystal Hicks on February 10, 2011 8:50 pm I still havent gotten any information on the Yiddish word for super salesman. You knowthe guy who could sell ice to Eskimos!! lol Cris 196. mo on February 12, 2011 8:47 am One of the posters above mentioned that English hadnt borrowed many words from Arabicthis is only half true. English has borrowed considerably from Spanish, though, which was occupied by the Arabs for some centuries and so weve gotten some words by proxy there, not dissimilar to picking up a bit of German by way of Yiddish. Algorithm, alchemy, alcohol, coffee, cotton, checkmate, elixir, hazard, mattress Its more that, like maven and klutz, theyve been with us so long that we forget theyre borrowed. 197. mo on February 12, 2011 8:48 am (Gah. Please forgive the typos. Its not even 6am here.) 198. Frisco Plumber on February 21, 2011 4:31 pm Great information. I got lucky and found your site from a random Google search. Fortunately for me, this topic just happens to be something that Ive been trying to find more info on for research purposes. Keep up the great work and thanks a lot. 199. Loretta on February 22, 2011 10:59 pm When I became an Orthodox Christian, I was puzzled by one word I came across in my new parish: GOYA. I knew it wasnt Greek because I had some reading
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knowledge of that language. It sounded Hebrew or Yiddish, but the ending was unfamiliar. I thought it might be Spanish; we have Spanish-speaking parishioners, and we Floridians eat the well known GOYA brand of black beans and other Spanish foods. It took a while before I found out that the GOYA our bulletin notices referred to meant neither Gentiles nor black beans, but the parish chapter of Greek Orthodox Youth in America. 200. Tony on February 25, 2011 8:26 am There are some Yiddish expressions that I remeber my parent using. One sounds like Tsei mish ca nar. I think it was part of a joke told by a jewish comedian. The last word is obviously the word for fool. The joke was about a speak your weight and fortune machine in a railway station. This man spent so long on the machine listening to the weight and fortune, because the machine was really accurate, knew all about him and kept asking for more money to finish off the fortune reading. Finally the machine says to him something like, your name is Eddy Goldstein, you live in Golders Green, your wifes name is Sadie and <<>>, youve missed your train. Somebody tell me what it means, after all these years. 201. ALEX MORRISON on March 23, 2011 5:55 pm I was born on the Isle of Skye 1938 and my first language was Gaelic. The people were very Pro Jewish probably because of the Old Testement,Icame to Glasgow at 17 and worked in a variety of jobs.I was bit down on my luck and living in a downmarket hostel when i got a job with a Jewish coalman in the old Glasgow Gorbals which had a big Jewish population.If it was a cash sale Abie would say gelt an fantesh.ITwas mostly the goyim who got credit although some Jews had accounts.They would take me to Geneens for salt beef and cabbage and i was happy although the work was very very hard.I still have a lot of Jewish pals and dear Micheal S ankey and I get shickered now and then He is a Holocost survivor and he is happy in this messugene velt.Mazel to all the Jews in the world and Israel. A L 202. IsraDane on March 25, 2011 4:23 pm Regarding the English translation of Kosher, a better translation than proper, would actually be fit. Kosher food is fit to eat, and in Hebrew Cheder Kosher is a fitness centre, and a sportsman can be kashur (same root) for the next game, (fit to play, as in not injured). And for all the obsessive Jew haters here, who appear to prowl the net for any place where they can vent their hatred go get something inserted up your tuches. 203. alex morrison on March 28, 2011 7:13 am A jew got converted to Christianity and became a minister he used to address his congregation as my fellow goyim 204. Papa97 on April 1, 2011 5:26 am A real treat and so informative. I suspect like many who gravitate to this site Im sure we all agree on how important language is. Many of us finding its roots fascinating.
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In all the time I was enjoying the comments I could not shake a comment by Mike *19 Im not normally given to political outburst but my cage was rattled Yes, there is definitely overreaching by some Iraelis on the part of their neighbours.. Is that what they call the blatant genocide of an ancient people these days where you come from Mike.. overreaching.. Will someone explain where this whole anti-semitic thing comes from since 85%+ of modern day Jewry are descendants of Khazars (7th Century Khazar king went eeny meeny mynee mo.Islam Christianity or Judaism) with not a single drop of semitic blood in them. Oh.. by the way, the same lies that is the basis of the pretext of stealing Palestine. Heres a couple of good words spine and accuracy So.. lets av it right shall we 205. David Quin on April 1, 2011 8:58 am Fascinating list. I think these Yiddish terms have great energy and resonance for English speakers because they are cousins of those English words that are derived from Anglo-Saxon. English is basically two languages joined together: Anglo-Saxon and French (and most English words come from French/Latin). The French and Latin terms are more abstract and generally those of an overclass (the Norman and French rulers of England). The Anglo-Saxon words are, in general, more earthy, emotional, onomatopoeic, and usually punchily monosyllabic: squelch, slug, stink (compare odour from the French!) and so on. The Yiddish terms mainly seem to come from the same ancient word hoard, and thus they sound meaningful to us even when we dont know their exact meaning. Add to that an injection of Jewish wit and humour, and youve got some gems! 206. IsraDane on April 2, 2011 8:44 am Papa97, cant you just go hate somewhere else, Adolf? Why come to Jewish places to start with? And what ancient people? And what genocide? Had we been genocidal towards the Palestinians (a term invented in the 1950s) it would have taken us about a week to finish. 207. TLM on April 2, 2011 11:33 am Grew up hearing Yiddish spoken by parents & grandparents, and the only word I never heard was your #1 on the list. Im afraid I never heard yiddishe kop but recall hearing goyishe kop more than a few times to mean idiot. 208. Papa97 on April 3, 2011 2:30 pm Isra Firstly I didnt realize it was Jewish site and secondly I dont hate anyone I was simply stating what I understand are facts. Im sorry if you were offended. I have no beef with Jews, just the criminal Imperialist Zionist that have hijacked Judaism..I have read The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and am under no illusions (as perhaps you may be considering simply mentioning a couple of facts gets me called Adolf) about certain peoples intentions. Give it a name. My Arabic is scratchy but Im know they had a name for the land. Im talking about the people who have lived there for thousands of years not the racist dopplegangers that stole it. Your last sentence was very revealing. No the world wouldnt stand for you to finish so you play the slow game as you always have. Pls Ive been to Israel save it for the dumb Goy
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I deeply apologize to anyone upset by my comments. 209. jenn on April 3, 2011 2:36 pm anyone who comes to a site that is discussing yiddish and starts talking about israeli politics is obviously ignorant to what yiddish is. please take your arguments elsewhere this is far from the place. unless youre discussing shtetl politics in ashkenaz, that is. your hatred, bigotry, and ignorance have no place here. 210. elzeide on April 3, 2011 4:06 pm to the urgent attention of the list moderators. This Pap97 is doing a lot of evil. First is telling plenty of lies. Consider that he pretends to know because he read The Protocols. Second he introduced a lot of hate in this basically peacefull list, and including comments that are completely off subject, that is yidish. Third, regarding the supposed sentence of the ex Tel Aviv mayor, I completely believe its a complete antisemite lie, exactly the same as infamous The Protocols. Also I couldnt find references to it in internet. And finally he shouts so loud his incredibly hate, Im sure hes sick (of hate) and he should be expulsed from the site. 211. ALEX MORRISON on April 3, 2011 6:24 pm When I first came to the big city 57 years ago and worked with Jews and amongst Jews I was not aware of any anti semitism. The Jews did there own thing worked hard and minded there own business.Today it is a different story with the Asians and I do not mean the Hindus or the Sikhs but the Muslims who take the slightest thing as an affront to Islam.In one of Glasgows oldest Catholic school which has a large Pakastani attendance they objected to to a statue of the virgin mary in the foyer as an insult to Allah It beggers belief.Britain is now sending millions of pounds to Pakistan in aid where the only christian member of parliment was assasinated.The mullahs are allowed to preach hate and promote terrorism burn our national flag in the street.Iam sure there are many decent peace loving muslims but a stand must be taken against the vermin radicals.If they do not like it here go back to Afganistan,Libyia or whatever uncivilised backward hellhole they want to where they wont get hard working taxpayers keeping them in benifits.Iam so angry at people like that sleazy lowlife scumbag MP toches lecher George Galloway who targets the Muslim vote by cosying up to the likes of Ghadaffi and the unlamented Saddam Hussein.may he burn in hell.I am not a racist but I am sick of it all and wonder what is going to become of our civilisation. 212. elzeide on April 3, 2011 9:54 pm As you clearly affirm (even before my first word) taht I will loose, is clearly a demonstration of your health. Just the fact that you mention The Protocols as a valid source after one hundred years that only people who hate jews believe on it, but not normal people, relieves me of trying to answer you. Then you make a difference between rank and file Jews and criminal Zionists. This is enough, and you dont deserve any answer. Many jews were assasinated or died on fire trying to show the truth to people like you, during 500 years of Spanish Inquisition and before. Millions died at the hands of people following your type of thinking during the German nazi regime, in the Russian and Poland pogroms, the jews murdered by the Cruzaders, and also the jews murdered by the muslims. And countless more. However as you believe you are the owner of the truth.
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So I beg to you to take off your lenses and go learn the real story. And I insist to the list moderators, to forbid you from accessing this thematic list. 213. elzeide on April 3, 2011 9:59 pm Papa97, while I was writing my comment, you vomited a lot more hate. I guess on my first answer to you. Youre full of hate. Look for medical advice, before going learn history. May be this will help you. And you insist that I go and read The Protocols. Are you insane or what??? 214. Lars H on April 4, 2011 3:14 am Papa97. I dont know about other countries, but very few Swedes would ever embarrass themselves by claiming that The Protocols in any way was a factual document. Like you, I have read it and it should be obvious to anyone that The Protocols is a product of someones imagination. And I might add since it is not written in Yiddish, it is a bit off topic 215. Papa97 on April 5, 2011 11:24 pm Anyone noticed not one person has said a word about the disgraceful comments of Israeli leaders that should set alarm bells off with any sane person. but no.. not oneYour arrogance is stunning and you have the effrontery to accuse ME of hate oh dear oh dear. Same M.O every single time. attack the messenger.. By the way Im a Prof of History and Comparative Studies for over thirty years and my information is gathered from a lifetime of academic study. not the idiot box.Oops Time will tell. 216. jenn on April 5, 2011 11:35 pm for someone who claims to be educated, you are extremely ignorant regarding yiddish. if you didnt notice, this is a page about yiddish. not israel. not middle eastern politics. yiddish, the language and culture of jews in ashkenaz, an area which encompassed most of europe, stretching west to germany (austria, hungary) and east to belarus, romania, etc. during an extended time period pre-world war I. this is not the appropriate outlet for your ranting. please excuse yourself as an educated person, one would think you would be able to find a more suitable venue. 217. josh on April 6, 2011 3:30 am i think its a really good website 218. Papa97 on April 6, 2011 10:50 pm Yes hands down.. your right, this is not the appropriate place but as I said earlier someone rattled my cage. Education has nothing to do with it. I am human with humane feelings and being called Adolf for stating a simple fact just got my goat. I keep coming back here out of optimism I guess just hoping someone might say Aw shucks.. maybe your right about Sharrons comment about rape etc . but can you shut up so we can get on with the Yiddish I would have some respect for that and I would have done just that But no. the muck just keeps on getting brushed under the carpet and frankly Im sick to my stomach with it. Seriously though.. dont you get it. Its only human to vent through frustration. I didnt stop to think where I was. When one sees images of screaming children
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scared to death after their father has been shot in front of them preceding their house being bulldozed flator to once again sit and listen to Mark Regev and his sickening lies when we know Mossad had seven specific targets for execution on the recent aid floatila. it kind of sticks in the craw. get it ? But you should know. the parties over People ARE waking up so I should expect some more inappropriate (ahhemm) responses Adios amigos.. 219. Papa97 on April 8, 2011 7:55 pm It took a while for the penny to drop. You were ALL right. What I said was inappropriate and my words here are not going to be sufficient to communicate how infantile I feel Ive been. Not very smart was I ? Im sure theres a whole series of Yiddish words that say it well, as only Yiddish can. Feel free !!! I am sorry if I hurt anyones feelings which I know I have and I ask your forgiveness. It wont happen again. With your permission Ill excuse myself from the site. 220. sima on April 21, 2011 11:25 pm my grandmother tought me when my mother yelled at me Farmakhen de pisk, lozen shtil- close your mouse , be quite 221. wildasthewind on May 1, 2011 6:34 pm RUBY. If what you say is true, that yiddish is German and it was stolen from them, Then wouldnt yiddish be german, and then why speak yiddish, if its german. just speak german. It is not a stolen language from the germans it is a mix of german ,polish, russian and is uniqully jewish.. one of the only languages most jews can speak to one another with, and be understood unless they speak hebrew not all speak hebrew yiddish is almost universal. 222. Jack on May 11, 2011 3:34 pm Ive just spent an enjoyable hour reading this thread from start to finish. Ill ignore the silly politics and get back to how this started, just with some love of the language. One addition, that surprisingly hasnt been mentioned so far, is Lansman, as in a greeting to a fellow speaker of the language, or countryman. One modification Ill offer is for my very favorite Yiddish word, kvell. One reader said it meant swell with pride, which, to my knowledge, is true as far as it goes, but, the extra kick that makes it a favorite is my understanding that it is almost always used to mean to swell with pride at the accomplishments of your child a lovely and unique Yiddish word indeed. One disagreement is with the contributer who felt that svelt was a Yiddish word. I checked a dictionary and believe it is French. But perhaps the contributer had an experience similar to my mine, where the word was always used by a Yiddish parent and therefore sounded Yiddish. My similar experience was with the word tumult which I was thoroughly convinced for year was Yiddish since my parents would always talk about some big tumult going on, putting their inflection on the word (which I incidentally never heard used by someone who was not Jewish). Thus a question for the many linguists out there: Is there a name for this psychological phenomenon? Thank you for this lovely site.
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223. Jim Lacey on May 15, 2011 2:29 pm Alas, the quintessential New York accent (think Archie Bunker) my father spoke is fast disappearing. Every New York neighborhood usta have a kosher delieven the part of Bay Ridge I grew up in which was 90% Irish and 10% Norwegian. At least fifty Yiddish expressions was the inheritance of all native New Yorkers. Ill add a favorite of my own zoftig, usually referring to a well-endowed woman, literally juicy, I believe. In German apple juice is Apfelsaft and saftig means juicy. Many native New Yorkers still speak with an unconscious Yiddish lilt. 224. Anne on May 15, 2011 3:31 pm Although Bubele seems derived from bubbe, it is usually use in referenced to females younger than the speaker. Its source is the Hebrew word Boobah which means doll. 225. Jan on May 15, 2011 3:57 pm I was born in the Rhineland and remember well how my grandparents speech was peppered with words that appear in the list that started this post. Schlamassel (current German German spelling) is used to the present day, but not to refer to a person, but to an unfortunate situation, like when a new soccer coach is hired to pull a team out of the Schlamassel its in. Any comment? On another note: My grandmother used the word Stiewel (pronounced steevel) to refer to a state of disorder, like the mess in a room that had to be cleared up. It always sounded Yiddish to me, but I have not found it in any compilation. Again, any comment? 226. Jan on May 15, 2011 4:05 pm Correction: Stiewel is pronounced shteevel. Has anyone mentioned tacheles? Used to the present day in Germany, as is in I have to talk tacheles with himmeaning I have to read him the riot act. 227. pigeonca on May 15, 2011 5:16 pm Interestingly, I have always heard Yiddish words that end in a elsewhere ending in ie where I grew up: mezzuzie instead of mezzuzah, schmattie instead of schmatta, etc. Having moved to Los Angeles from Chicago, I recently learned that these ie endings are native to Chicago, which I find really fascinating. Here is a European language with a Chicago variant. Pretty cool, huh? 228. barbara harshav on May 15, 2011 7:48 pm in modern hebrew slang, shvitz means to brag; a shivitzer is an arrogant braggart. 229. Karen on May 15, 2011 11:34 pm My dad used to use kibbitz to describe sitting and watching someone else play pinochle. He also used it to describe someones way of sitting at your dinner table uninvited and commenting on the food. It was not a compliment. 230. Naftali Arik on May 17, 2011 4:28 pm This article has it wrong about treif, which means torn and refers to meat that is not properly slaughtered by is killed by tearing. Shrimp are not treif, because
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they could never be kosher. But a cow that has been run over by a truck is treif. 231. LittleBird on May 25, 2011 9:23 am In my family (or maybe this is specific to LondonI dont know), we predominantly use schlock to mean messy or an untidy person. Anyone else know anything about this? 232. Will on May 26, 2011 2:39 pm I checked into this site because I am trying to recall the word that I used to hear growing up in NY which referred to any one of the following categories (generally applied to a man, I never heard it applied to a woman): a strict boss, someone hot-tempered, a prick, if you will. Not that I plan on using it, mind you! Any ideas? Fascinating dialogue, despite some of the irrelevent and attention-grabbing hate speech. Ruby, your comment re stealing language was shameful and totally incorrect. Listen to Jenn already, shes the voice of reason. 233. Bibby on May 26, 2011 10:21 pm You missed the most important one: MESHUGGAH 234. candy on June 4, 2011 1:01 pm How do you spell the world phonetically pronounced Zi-rah-zi or Tsi-rah-zi meaning like a bum, sleaze, loser? 235. Me on June 7, 2011 12:04 pm The reason the bubele is not in the dictionary is because, in Yiddish, the suffix ele is a diminutive and a term of affection. So, for example, meidel means girl meidele means little girl or is something you would call a girl affectionately. 236. Helma on June 10, 2011 12:13 am Me June 7, bubele is an affectional word for a young boy, when approaching him or talking about him. It is a normal word spoken in the south-german language, although never spoken in the north-german language. 237. careful on June 13, 2011 12:05 am Really enjoyed the definitions and had a few laughs too. Was curious and glad to come across this. Be careful of those who claim to be one of Jehovahs Witnesses, because usually they are not. They are usually caustic people who choose to spread lies to others and twist the scriptures. They have given in to satan. 238. Jared on June 17, 2011 12:02 am Ive never heard most of these words and yet schlep wasnt in here. I dont understand. 239. Josh on June 18, 2011 5:03 am Really enjoying the Yiddish words and the linguistic conversations. (not a fan of the politics/hatred/anti-anyone stuff)
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Will, perhaps the word youre thinking of is Putz? Not a polite word (as I believe its one of the many Yiddish words for male anatomy) but could definitely be used to describe a fool or a jerk Crystal, Im not sure what the term would be for a super salesman but Shyster might be the term used for a con-artist who could sell ice in winter. A note about an earlier comment the term Mazel Tov is generally used to express congratulations but one of the beautiful things about Yiddish (IMHO) is that it can also be said sarcastically. So sometimes it can mean thats just great for you you must be so thrilled Not! as in: Your daughter is marrying a shvartza/Your son is marrying a shiksa Mazel Tov. (come on folks if were truly interested in an honest discussion about how Yiddish is used, lets be frank shiksa and shvartza and others have been used in the past with negative connotation. Not suggesting its appropriate to continue to do so but lets not pretend to be surprised!) Thank you for this site peace to all. 240. me on June 20, 2011 5:50 pm In Brooklyn, all the hushed comments about shvartzers led to the inevitable talk about all the vicers, since the shvartzers might have figured out we were talking about them. 241. bert on June 21, 2011 1:01 pm Oy vey already ! (Well, more in the sense of amazement !) This site is just loaded with amazing stuff !! Its just a pity that I never have time to read it all Fantastic site !! Vielen dank Arigatou gozaimashita 242. jessiethought on June 22, 2011 9:06 pm Wow. Really interesting. I didnt know klutz was Yiddish. 243. Vendulka on June 27, 2011 3:42 am My mother tongue is Czech. Kibbitz (or kibic in Czech) is used in exactly the same meaning in Czech you say it does not have in English it is used for someone who is giving unwanted advice about someone elses game It sometimes goes in phrase Kibic pod stl (Kibbitz, go under the table or Kibbitz belongs under the table). We also have a verb kibicovat which means giving unwanted advice (not only about a game but generally). 244. MikeCG on July 5, 2011 11:48 pm
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Born to Kvetch: Yiddish Language and Culture in All of Its Moods by Michael Wex is a great audio book (available from audible.com, Amazon.com, which owns audible.com, and probably elsewhere; download it to your iPod). It is also available in hard copy, but to listen to Wex speak the language provides a dimension one cant get by reading a written text. His explanations of Yiddish origins are erudite and enlightening. Try it, youll like it! 245. Harv on July 10, 2011 5:23 pm Brand new audio self-learn Yiddish or Hebrew for beginners. havin10@gmail.com 246. Richie on July 22, 2011 4:48 pm As a young boy, my siblings and I would sit in the back seat of the car on one of the many long drives into the country we would do on weekends. We tended to bother poor Dad quite a bit, so one thing we always got from him just as the good natured bothering commenced was Dont huk mik chynik which sometimes broke down into a simple dont huck me to death or something. To me, it always sounded like he was saying huk a mecka chinika I never quite understood it. I was like 5 at the time. Does anyone know the actual phrase? What does it mean? Something to do with being a nudnik I bet. 247. Alice Spacey on August 7, 2011 9:09 am I am an A level student at a high school in England and am currently writing a short story for my EPQ (Extended Project Qualification). The title of my piece is A short story exploring the life of a homosexual German-Jewish immigrant living in America during the 1950s. This page has been very useful at giving me Yiddish phrases. However, I would like to know if anyone would be willing to read through my work and tell me if Ive used words/phrases in the right context. If you wish to contact me could you please first reply on here, if youre intersested, and then we can work on it from there. Thank you very much, again, for posting this online. And thank you for your time for reading this comment. 248. Yiddishe Kop on August 12, 2011 4:03 am To Richie on July 22, 2011 What youre refering to is the phrase Hack nisht kien tchienik, which means stop bothering, and is sometimes used in another phrase with the same meaning Drie nisht kien kop. 249. Harv Mayerowicz on August 16, 2011 6:07 pm First of all, I grew up in a home where my parents spoke Yiddish to my sister and me, but we answered just in English. I am 65 years old and have not heard much Yiddish in decades, so I can barely understand let alone speak the mama loshen (mother tongue). To address, the pedigree of Yiddish, let me say, that while it did begin as middle ages High German, it adopted words from each country where Jews lived. As a result, many speakers of many tongues can recognize words from their languages. I absolutely loved the observation by Robert Aitchison (#11) who said that
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Yiddish is middle age Ebonics. This was true for all Yiddish speakers until today. To the person, arguing about the theft of words from other languages, then as English speakers, we must admit to the same thievery. One of the reasons English is so difficult to master is its inconsistent and limited rules. The reason for this is that English is the mutt of the language kennel. We have adopted (stolen) words and rules from almost all the languages and language groups of Europe. This includes all the Romance languages including Latin. We have also stolen from the Greek, Scandinavian, Slavic language groups and others. In fact, I submit we are the most prolific language thieves in the Western world. So any carping about the lack of pedigree for Yiddish is due to a lack of understanding, or perhaps something more odious. 250. Yiddishe Kop on August 22, 2011 2:17 am A most interesting sign appears in Brooklyn just as you leave the Williamsburg area, going onto the Williamsburg Bridge which goes to the East Side/Manhattan. It says Leaving Brooklyn? Oy Vey !!. 251. Alison Lardner-Burke on August 27, 2011 10:45 pm If a schmuck is male anatomy, is a schmeckle what I think it is .. A South African , bluegum expression that caused my dad lots of angst when I used it , but being an anglo saxon victorian he could never bring himself to translate. Even Jews I know here in Australia dont know what it means.! 252. Hittocere on August 29, 2011 7:04 am Wow it just occured to me how many of these I remember hearing in the movie Grumpy Old Men and its sequel Grumpier Old Men. It just makes me laugh thinking about how many times the word Schmuck is used in it. Thank you for posting this. 253. Dave on September 4, 2011 5:42 am Regarding tachles thanks to Jan on May 15, another meaning is to get to the point, so talking tachles means talking business. I did not find in the whole discussion two Yiddish pearls shlumper and bekitzer. The former is an untidy unkempt person, sometimes a child of wild disposition (Oy vei, you look like a shlumper! Tidy up right away! The latter is deriver from Hebrew bekitzur in short. Rather synonymous with tachles. 254. mop456 on September 8, 2011 7:34 am My husbnd nd i felt completely thnkful when Emmnuel mnged to finish up his investigtions while utilizing the suggestions he got from your internet pge. Its not t ll simplistic to just be hnding out concepts which frequently some other individuls hve been mking csh from. nd now we remember we hve you to thnk becuse of tht. The min illustrtions you mde, the esy blog nvigtion, the reltionships you ssist to instill its most fntstic, nd its truly helping our son in ddition to us believe tht the content mteril is exciting, nd thts very fundmentl. Thnks for ll the pieces! 255. joe schrank on September 9, 2011 7:10 pm Yiddish is nowhere near ebonics, ebonics is just plain ghetto and useless.
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256. Yiddishe Kop on September 12, 2011 12:54 pm bekitzur is really not a Yiddish word, it stems from Lushen Hakodesh , but is used very often when speaking Yiddish. 257. IIL on September 15, 2011 3:51 am A few corrections: first- about the Word KIBITZER it has nothing to do with KIBUTZ (Except for the root which does imply gathering for hebrew speakres) In Yiddish it is a name for a begger (one who asks for handouts- trying to put two pennies together) - in Yiddish slang it also means for a guy begging for attention and thus allways sticks his nose in, and gives advice. and Naftali Arik- strictly speaking U R right: shelfish are SHIKUTZ or SHERETZ and not TREIFE, but TREIFE as the opposite of COSHER is generaly and widely acceptable. I liked the article 258. N. Goldstock on September 15, 2011 7:28 pm Has anyone ever heard the word Choydamakis or Hoydamakis? At least that is how it sounded when my mother spoke it. It means a low-life or redneck or generally uncouth person/people. 259. Mark_W on September 26, 2011 4:12 pm Growing up in the NYC metro area in the 60s, enjoying Jewish comics and sharing school classes with Jews, I would have expected that Yiddish expressions could be tossed about cheerfully alongside German ones. I found it not to be so. I was subject to suspicion and correction by kids who thought they owned these phrases. Gott be danken those days are gone! The great power of American English is its lack of an academy to instruct us on what is and is not a word or phrase we may adopt for common use. 260. Christopher on October 7, 2011 11:35 am We goyim just adore how that word translates to animals. Charming appelation for the chosen people to give to the rest of us.
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40 Words You Should Know

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The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

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The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

The Yiddish Handbook: 40 Words You Should Know

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