Random facts about Yiddish and Hebrew
- 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
August 29th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Did you intentionally put the word “glitch” in there twice as some kind of meta-joke or something?
August 29th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Of course, what other possible explanation could there be?
August 29th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
Do they have a phrase to express the sentiment like “Piss off you stinky Palestinian, you have 24 hours to leave your house and take all your possessions with you before I bring my big bulldozer and flatten your wretched hovel and steal your land”.
Or something like that. A bit shorter, perhaps?
August 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Congratulations, Alex. You are distributing anti semitic propaganda once again. Come back to Britain and you’ll be arrested.
August 30th, 2008 at 7:34 am
I’m sure Alex is quaking in his Tefl boots, ‘Mr Bilfir’ - or is it ‘Mr Williams’? Anyway, what’s wrong with ‘telling it like is is’? Only a liar could possibly disagree with that!
August 30th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
No, the name is Bilfir. You will remember it.
August 30th, 2008 at 7:25 pm
For a day or so. On the other hand, the name of Sandy McManus will live on in your memory for a very long while!!
How go things in Oxfordshire these days?