This term stems from the Yiddish word megillah, which means “long and tedious story.”ġ0. A post on social media that is too long to keep its reader’s attention, like a Twitter thread that just goes on and on. The origins of this word is the combination of nausea with the Yiddish word machatunim, which means the “parents of your daughter or son-in-law.” While holiday gatherings may normally inspire these feelings in parents with married children, we’re guessing that one bright spot of the pandemic is that machatunausea is lessened over Zoom.ĩ. The feeling of revulsion one feels at having to spend time with the parents of your child’s spouse. (Note: Determining when this happens is open to interpretation!)Ĩ. Since you are arriving at this article at Kveller (welcome!), you are likely aware that kvell is Yiddish word that means “experiencing pride for someone else, in particular one’s children.” Combined with the word “buzzkill,” kvellkill is kvelling taken too far. To brag so much and so often - particularly about one’s children - as to completely bore the listener. Hotzeplotz is the Yiddish word for “the middle of nowhere.”ħ. A period of life when a person feels lost and aimless, often experienced by young people just out of college (or many of us living through a pandemic). As many of you know from our sister site, the Nosher, the word nosh (which is spelled here as “ gnosh”) means “to nibble.”Ħ.
A person who can’t stop nibbling on food for virtually the entire day.
As in, “There goes Millie with that fake-kaktah laugh again.” This word is a combination of “fake” and the Yiddish word fakakta, meaning “ridiculous,” especially in behavior.ĥ. Pretending to be a wild, colorfully kooky person - but not fooling anyone. This word stems from chazerai which is Yiddish for “garbage,” or “pig stuff.” Klein notes that the Yiddish language has a knack for finding a variety of words that invoke pigs (and also, penises).Ĥ. Klein adds that this word is especially necessary in modern times, as Jews love to “yak a lot, always have, and continue to do so in cyberspace.” Too true.ģ. This word comes from the Yiddish word schmooze, which means to talk intimately or cozily. To engage in long, animated, and gossipy conversation on the internet (where basically all interactions happen during these pandemic days). Klein adds that the term “has been generalized to mean any special day or vacation day, with or without bread.” We always love new ways to celebrate the beauty that is Shabbat!Ģ. Cute slang for the Sabbath, during which challah (braided egg bread) is traditionally baked and eaten. Klein includes language on all topics, from food to family to technology.
#Yiddish work smooze tv#
“Yiddish doesn’t have the vocabulary for the modern world of Google, mixed marriages, new gender identities, and many more aspects of contemporary life,” he tells Kveller.Īnd yet, “as a language that picked up words as Jews emigrated from one nation to another, it has a capacity for adding new words to its vocabulary.” Drawing on his experience working in the writer’s room for TV host Merv Griffin, he created an updated vocabulary of new Yiddish expressions, Schmegoogle: Yiddish Words for Modern Times.Īs evident in the book’s title - which combines Google with “a long list of Yiddish put-down words that begin with sch” like, schmuck, schlemiel and schlemazel to name a few - most of the words in this fun dictionary are a mashup of an English word or phrase with a Yiddish one, creating puns and expressions that will make you laugh, ponder, and appreciate the evolution of language. While the wonderful language of Yiddish has so much to offer - in particular, its colorful curses, such as “ gay cocken oifen yam,” which means, “go shit in the ocean” - the age-old tongue can sometimes be at a loss for the unique situations of modern life.įortunately, author Daniel Klein identified this conundrum - and solved it. For many Ashkenazi Jews, in particular, using Yiddish words can be a fun and humorous way to celebrate our heritage and our ancestors, while also helping to keep the language alive. The Jewish diaspora encompasses so many languages, from Ladino to Hebrew to Yiddish, to lesser known tongues such as Yevanic (Judeo-Greek) and Aramaic.
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