Brushin' up on my Yiddish

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/23/04 at 5:31pm

Well, I had to in order to read the Playbill.com article. I learned shtetl and pogrom. Goy, I already knew.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/23/04 at 6:08pm

The writer must have been a real chaim yankel...

although I bet he has a ferbissenah punim!

I'll have to gib a kick!

Thank god for Jewish Step-mothers!

Ya gotta admit, damn good yiddish for a guy with the last name Verruso!

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/24/04 at 11:36am

Teaching in the New York City public schools brings me in contact with staff members of varied ethnic backgrounds. I presently have lunch with several Orthodox Jews, an Egyptian, a Pakistani and a Russian. Living in New York has brought many Yiddish expressions into my vocabulary, but they are all new to many of the other people sitting our table. This is especially true of my Pakistani friend. It seems as though she is introduced to a new Yiddish word or phrase every day. In the past week we've had fun explaining the various meanings of "schlep", "shmear", and "shmuck". Oddly enough, she's picked up the words and it was funny to hear her complain about having to "schlep" a VCR from one room to another: this coming from a young lady who keeps her head covered and frequently wears clothes from her native country!

[sabrelady]

Posted: 1/24/04 at 1:14pm

Funnily enough I recently had to explain The difference between "schmuck" & "putz" to someone & then got into an argeument with the lady next to us who disagreed. w my explaination. GEVALT! ( Incidentily I explained it as "shmuck" is a penis and an almost friendly term of abuse but "putz" is a "diseased penis" and a term that gets folk to fighting! Any others?

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/24/04 at 2:13pm

As it was explained to me, a "schmuck" is not the entire penis, but rather just the foreskin which is removed at the time of bris. Oddly, in Germany, the word "schmuck" is seen in the windows of jewelry stores. It means "costume jewelry" in German.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/24/04 at 3:27pm

Oy, my vocabulary list is getting longer:

shtetl-Etymology: Yiddish shtetl, from Middle High German stetel, diminutive of stat place, town, city, from Old High German, place -- more at STEAD
: a small Jewish town or village formerly found in Eastern Europe
pogrom-Etymology: Yiddish, from Russian, literally, devastation
: an organized massacre of helpless people; specifically : such a massacre of Jews
chaim yankel
ferbissenah punim
gib
schlep-Etymology: Yiddish shlepn, from Middle High German sleppen, from Middle Low German slEpen
transitive senses : DRAG, HAUL
intransitive senses : to proceed or move slowly, tediously, or awkwardly
shmear
schmuck-Etymology: Yiddish shmok, literally, penis
slang : JERK
putz

I need help on the ones with no definition. I found several Yiddish dictionaries online, but none had these words or expressions. My definitions have all come from Merriam-Webster Online (http://www.m-w.com).

Updated On: 1/24/04 at 03:27 PM

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/24/04 at 5:43pm

A George Costanza-type person can also be a SCHLEP. A long trip is also a SCHLEP.

PUTZ--see "schmuck"

SCHMEAR--a "smear" of butter, cream cheese, jelly. You might order "a bagel with a 'schmear' ".

[magruder]

Posted: 1/24/04 at 5:48pm

A chaim yankel is a hapless person, a dope.

Farbissenah punim is a bitter or sour face.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/24/04 at 7:08pm

Many years ago, when Mimi Hines (who is not Jewish) replaced That Streisand Woman (who is Jewish) in FUNNY GIRL, Dorothy Kilgallen in the JOURNAL AMERICAN claimed people were now referring to the show as FUNNY GOY.

[FrontRow]

Posted: 1/27/04 at 6:55pm

Which Playbill.com article is this referring to, with all the Yiddish???

[RobbO]

Posted: 1/27/04 at 7:21pm

i've never heard a person referred to as a schlep, only a schmuck or a putz...

[Dollypop]

Posted: 1/27/04 at 8:34pm

My Jewish lunch partners will often refer to an unkempt man as "a schlep". This was a topic of discussion at lunch just a few days before Chris posted this thread.

[ChrisLovesShows]

Posted: 1/27/04 at 9:08pm

FrontRow, here's a link to the article:

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/83941.html

[Unknown User]

Posted: 1/28/04 at 1:32pm

What's the difference between a schlemiel, a schlemozzle and a schmendric?