Archive for the ‘Born to Kvetch’ Category

- The basic meaning of klots, from where the English word klutz comes, is “wooden beam”
- “Jezebel…means ‘daughter of garbage’ [in Hebrew]; her name was probably [really]… Jebaal, daughter of Baal…” (Born to Kvetch pg 22) 

- “Beelzebub…,lord of the flies,was a takeoff of Baal Zevul, lord of heaven” (Born to Kvetch pg 22)
- “Schlong” is a yiddish word (it also has the innocent meaning of “snake”), and “schmuk” and “putz ” also means penis
- “Chutzpah” is an entirely negative word in Yiddish
- “Bubkes” as in “He isn’t worth bubkes” literally means “beans” or “goat droppings”
- “Glitch” possibly comes from the Yiddish word “glitsh”, from glitshn ’slide’, similar to the German word “glitschen”- “slither”
- “Maven” comes from the Hebrew word “mevin” “one who understands” via the the Yiddish word “meyvn”
- The London slang word “nosh” comes from the Yiddish word “nashn”, similar to the German word “naschen”
- Another Cockney classic is “schlep” from from the Yiddish “shlepn” to make a tedious journey, similar to the German word “schleppen”
- The original (Yiddish) meaning of “schmaltz” is melted chicken fat
- “Schnoz/ schnozz/ schnozzle” comes from the Yiddish word “shnoits”, snout, similar to the German word Schnauze
- “Shtick” comes from the Yiddish word for ‘piece’, similar to the German word “Stück” 
- “Spiel”/ “shpiel” comes from the Yiddish word “shpil”, play, similar to the German word “Spiel”
- “Glitch” comes from the Yiddish word “glitsh”, meaning slip,” “skate,” or “nosedive,
- “Kibbutz” is the Hebrew word for “collective”
- “Tush”, the American slang for bum, comes from the Yiddish word “tuchis”/ “tuches”/ “tokhis”
- “To keep shtoom” comes from the Yiddish word “shtum”- silent or speechless
- “Shyster” and “gazump” also come from Yiddish

Other random facts from Born to Kvetch

- Why brideGROOM? It was a completely different word that disappeared from the English language, so they just changed the pronunciation to make it the same as the closest word by pron (technically, assimilation) pg 35

- The showbiz term ‘a turkey’ means a show that “flaps its wings but never flies” pg 23

New words (for me) from Born to Kvetch
the Tetragrammaton- YHVH- the real name of God
antiphrasis- saying the opposite of what you mean, as a kind of euphemism

ale tseyn zoln dir oysfaln, nor eyner zol dir blaybn af tsonveytik- all your teeth should fall out,but you should keep one to get a toothache with

hak mir nisht ken tshaynik-don’t knock me a teakettle-stop rattling on about the same thing all the time (like the lid of a boiling kettle rattling)

yeytser-hore-bleterl- a small blotch of the evil inclination- a lovebite

zol dir dreyen farn nopl- you should go dizzy in the navel

a dank dir in pupik- thank you in the navel- thanks for nothing

vi got in frankraykh- like God in France- “living in sin”

der malekh ha-moves zol zikh in dir farlibn- the Angel of Death should fall in love with you

shtarbn in fremde takhrikhim- to die in someone else’s shrouds- to die in debt

mayn kadish, kadishl- my little mourner- my son (the person who will say the Kaddish when I die)

zolst mir megulgl vern in a henglaykhter, bay tog zoltsu hengen un bay nakht zolstu brenen- You should be reincarnated as a chandelier (you should hang by day and burn by night)

All from Born to Kvetch, both the funniest and the most serious book I have ever read about Yiddish.

Coming up: Phrases that really should exist in English Part Two- Japanese English and Random Facts about Yiddish- someone please nag me if that turns into the usual promise of posts that I get distracted from…

I thought so.  Try these with your classes, then:

Student A: How are you?
Student B: Old

Student A: How are you?
Student B: How am I? How should I be?

Student A: How are you?
Student B: How should I be, with my feet?

Student A: How’s your brother?
Student B: Dead

Student A: What’s doing?
Student B: Nothing
A: Nothing?
B: Nothing.

Student A: How was your weekend?
Student B: It should happen to my enemies

Student A: What time is it?
Student B: What am I, a clock?

In case you haven’t guessed they are all from Yiddish, specifically mainly from the surprisingly readable popular linguistics book Born to Kvetch. More good stuff from there coming on TEFLtastic soon.