by Kevin Burton
You could go to college and learn about words and word formation, or you could go to the nearest schoolyard.
How do we get the words we get?
The cool kids, the most influential ones, talk a certain way. Soon the school follows. Believe me, in school had turns of being a cool kid and of NOT being a cool kid.
Some words are just more fun or more useful or both. I’m no lexicographer, but I’m guessing it isn’t too much more complicated than that.
Expand our view from the school yard to the culture as a whole, and here’s how the Merriam-Webster Dictionary puts it, as we consider today, words that came to English from Yiddish:
“English takes on new words all the time. We’ve been borrowing liberally from other languages—French, Latin, and Italian to mention just a few—for centuries. More recently, in the last hundred years, we’ve added many Yiddish words in our melting pot.
What follows is a list of some of the more well-known words of Yiddish origin to have entered English. These are not direct English translations of Yiddish words; they are words from Yiddish that have been sufficiently naturalized in our language to be included in an English language dictionary.”
Bubkes: the least amount; also : nothing
The Yiddish word bubkes (also spelled in both English and Yiddish as bupkes or bubkus) is thought to be short for the colorful kozebubkes, which means ‘goat droppings’—something you may want to consider the next time you find yourself saying ‘I’ve got bubkes.’
Chutzpah supreme self-confidence
Chutzpah is not only one of the most well-known words of Yiddish origin we have in English, it was also one of the first to be borrowed. Its first known occurrence in English dates back to 1867; many of the other Yiddish words we’ve borrowed don’t appear in print until the middle of the 20th century.
Chutzpah comes from the Yiddish khutspe, which is itself descended from the Hebrew ḥuṣpāh. Some speakers of Yiddish feel that this word has been diluted in English use, and no longer properly conveys the monumental nature of the gall that is implied. A common non-lexicographic way to define chutzpah is to say that it is exemplified by the man who kills his parents and then asks the court for mercy, on the grounds that he is an orphan.
Glitch: a usually minor malfunction
It should be stated at the outset that the parentage of glitch is not assured, something we should not hold against so useful a word. Merriam-Webster states (as do many other dictionaries) that the word is “perhaps from Yiddish glitsh,’ a word that means ‘slippery place.'”
Schmaltz : sentimental or florid music or art 2 : sentimentality
Schmaltz started being used in English in the mid-1930s, and is unusual in that it began its life with a literal and a figurative meaning (most words wait a while before being used metaphorically). The literal meaning is ‘the rendered fat of poultry,’ a substance that is much in use in traditional Jewish cooking. The extended meaning of schmaltz was first applied to popular music of a cloying, or overly sentimental, variety.
Klutz: a person who often drops things, falls down, etc. : a clumsy person
The story of klutz is a classic immigrant’s tale. The word came to our language but a few generations ago, began its hardscrabble life as a non-standard lexical item, and through dint of hard work and having the good fortune of beginning and ending with two very funny letters, managed to make itself a widely accepted and useful member of our language. There does not appear to be any written evidence of klutz in English prior to 1959, when Carl Reiner explained the meaning of the word to the Los Angeles Times: “[a klutz is] a dancer who dances as good as he can, but instead of just applause he also gets laughter.” It comes from the Yiddish word klots, which means ‘wooden beam.’
Megillah: a long involved story or account
For a long time before megillah was the word that was used to refer to an overlong story or convoluted production its primary meaning was a considerably different one. The Megillah is typically read out loud from a scroll in course of certain Jewish holidays. At the beginning of the 20th century megillah began to be used in a figurative sense to refer to a long or complicated tale. It comes to English from the Yiddish word megile, which is itself from the Hebrew mĕgillāh, meaning ‘scroll.’
Bagel: a firm doughnut-shaped roll traditionally made by boiling and then baking
The bagel, both the humblest and mightiest of all bread forms, is, unsurprisingly, of Yiddish origins. The word that names it comes from that language’s word beygl. It is widely speculated (at least by those who do such speculation) that the Yiddish word is descended from the Middle High German word böugel, which is from another German word for ring or bracelet.
Tomorrow: More words from Yiddish.
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