February 2013
4 posts
Anonymous asked: How do yu write the word strong and the word brave in hebrew? Like she is brave and she is strong or a brave woman or a strong woman but jus the two words brave and strong?
Anonymous asked: What is the etymology of "גיך" (gikh - "quickly")?
3 tags
Anonymous asked: is word for newborn naphish not kimpotkind
December 2012
7 posts
Anonymous asked: Hello! A quick question: So "tate" is dad, and "tateleh" is the diminutive—but is "tateleh" also just an endearing term for anyone someone loves? I hear it used most often when a mother is addressing her child, and this is the way it's used in those SNL Linda Richman skits, but I was wondering if that was "real" Yiddish or more of an American...
Anonymous asked: How should I pronounce "Chale" in a Jewish Bakery?
peterhk asked: A slightly silly question, maybe, but I see that one of you is named Shaul. One of my uncles was Shail (at least that's how it was pronounced) which I guess is another version of the same name (Saul in English). Do you know if that's right? Is Shail the Yiddish version and Shaul the Hebrew one? TIA again, and thanks for your informative answers.
Anonymous asked: What happened to the Yiddish word of the week coming out weekly? The last time was 3 months ago
peterhk asked: A dank! Sorry to keep going on about this, but Weinreich gives מויל= moyl for (animal) mouth. Someone who does a bris is a moyel (מוהל). Is there much difference in pronunciation? TIA!
Anonymous asked: Regarding pisk in the previous post: I remember that sour puss people were called "fruma pishkes" in my family, loosely translated as strict face. So, rather than punim, maybe pisk as a slang...just connecting dots. zie ga zunt. Shariellen
peterhk asked: Sorry if this is a bit long, but one of the songs on the album "Live in Fiddler's House" (Klezmer Conservatory Band with Itzhak Perlman, great recording BTW) has the lyric "Geb zhe mir dayn piskele, geb zhe mir ayn kish" which I thought was "Give me your lips, give me a kiss". However I see that "pisk" is actually "snout", or impolite slang...
November 2012
3 posts
peterhk asked: "Maybe instead it was geferlekh?" Could well be! She certainly said it with a note of sarcasm. I was thinking that maybe it was a Yiddish variant of the German word "gefällig", which can mean "pleasing", but your idea sounds more likely.
peterhk asked: I can remember my grandmother talking with her friend, and saying with a sarcastic wave of her hand (as best I can recall) "gefellige meyse". I think this means "wonderful story". Is that right. TIA!
Anonymous asked: "freg mikh bekheyrem" means "I don't know". It includes "kheyrem" which means ostracism or ban. Can anybody explain the literal meaning, ie what does banning have to do with it? TIA!
October 2012
1 post
Anonymous asked: what does grischke mean. My mother said it's like naging
August 2012
7 posts
Reklamirn - רעקלאמירן
Reklamirn - רעקלאמירן \rek-la-MIR-en\ Verb \ Past Participle: Reklamirt:
To advertise.
Alternative verbal usage: makhn reklame (מאכן רעקלאמע) - lit., to make an announcement (based on the German “Reklame machen”).
Synonyms: anonsirn (אנאנסירן), meldn (מעלדן). German equivalents: annoncieren, bekanntmachen, reklamieren, werben.
Etymology: The word derives from New High German...
Aaron and Sonia Fishman Foundation for Yiddish...
For those interested, the Aaron and Sonia Fishman Foundation for Yiddish Culture is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, established in 1966, which seeks to spread knowledge of Yiddish among Jewish children and youth by funding new, innovative educational projects. The Foundation is currently accepting applications for the 2013 grant cycle, and instructions for how to apply can be found on the...
Anonymous asked: Just stumbled across your site! My parents spoke a bit of Yiddish around me ... they pronounced words a bit differently. For instance, instead of "meed" (tired), they'd say "meet". Is that just an accent, or is it a different dialect?
Shtekn - שטעקן
Shtekn - שטעקן \SHTEK-en\ Noun \ Masculine \ Pl. Shtekns:
A stick, cane, club, stuff. According to Wexler (quoting Prylucki), shtekenes (שטעקענעס) refers specifically to large sticks (cf. Weinreich here and here, though, who seems to think that this form is simply a Central Yiddish variant of the plural shtekns).
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in...
Kave Shtieb
For those interested, Kave Shtiebl is another one of those fascinating, Hasidic-run, Yiddish-language chat forums (similar to the iVelt forum we profiled previously here) which focuses on many areas of Jewish life of interest to the Haredi reader/observer. There, you can read about and discuss (exclusively in Yiddish!) Jewish and general news, the happenings in the Haredi community, science and...
July 2012
12 posts
Troyern - טרויערן
Troyern - טרויערן \TROY-er-en\ Verb \ Past Participle
Getroyert: To be sad, grieve, mourn.
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
Synonyms: baveynen (באוויינען), klemen (קלעמען), klogn (קלאגן), metsaer zayn (מצער זיין), opesen dos harts (אפעסן דאס הארץ; lit., to eat one’s heart out), shver makhn dos harts (שווער מאכן דאס הארץ; lit., to...
National Yiddish Book Center Multimedia Library
For those interested, the National Yiddish Book Center Multimedia Library recently started posting recordings of lectures given by and interviews conducted with famous Yiddish personalities during their visits to the Jewish Public Library of Montreal between 1953 and 2005 as part of its Frances Brandt Online Yiddish Audio Library. Currently, about 60 out of 1,100 recordings are available here,...
Anonymous asked: A student of mine asked if I had ever heard of a Yiddish saying her mother used to always use when she was growing up in Russia. It goes something like: "he runs around (trying to impress people) vi a meshumad in kloyster". (The idea being that meshumadim tried to show themselves off as extra zealous hoping to be accepted.) I couldn't find it anywhere--have you ever heard of such a...
Anonymous asked: If someone is wearing a mahoda, what is it and how do you spell it?
Shild - שילד
Shild - שילד \SHILD\ Noun \ Masculine/Feminine \ Pl. Shildn:
A shield, sign, signboard. A note on the gender: According to Wexler, shild in the sense of “signboard” has feminine gender, while shild in the sense of “shield” is masculine.
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in...
University of Manitoba
For those interested, the University of Manitoba recently posted online audio recordings from the Winnipeg Yiddish Women’s Reading Circle. Members of the Reading Circle selected short stories and poems written by female Yiddish authors and recorded them for posterity on this website, along with brief summaries of the stories and links to biographies of the writers. I should also point out...
Fentster - פענצטער
Fentster - פענצטער \FENTS-ter\ Noun \ Masculine \ Pl. Fentster:
A window. Alternate spelling: fenster (פענסטער).
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
German equivalent: das Fenster.
Etymology: The word derives from Middle High German “venster,” from Old High German “venstar,” which itself comes from Latin...
Philologos
For those interested, our dear Philologos recently wrote up an article on whether or not Israel should have adopted Yiddish, instead of Hebrew, as its national language, based on the claim made by some that Yiddish was the dominant native language of world Jewry at the time of the State’s establishment. He discusses the issue honestly and fairly and ultimately concludes that the choice of...
Anonymous asked: doesnt the expression es bafehlt mir --mean: I like it-or it's good or suitable for me? mendal katz -kfar haroeh israel
June 2012
3 posts
Bafeln - באפעלן
Bafeln - באפעלן \ba-FEL-en\ Verb \ Past Participle: Bafoyln:
To command, order, convey, communicate.
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native German speaker pronounce this word (the pronunciation is a bit different from normal Yiddish pronunciation, but it’s similar enough that it should give you some idea of how to say the word...
Tikhon Ironi Alef
For those interested, the Municipal High School A (Tikhon Ironi Alef) in Tel Aviv hosts a website dedicated to Yiddish studies. The site includes an amazing array of Yiddish-related materials, including a Yiddish-Hebrew/Hebrew-Yiddish online dictionary, links to the text of many Yiddish songs and poems, Yiddish grammar lessons and learning modules, practice exercises, biographies of famous Yiddish...
May 2012
4 posts
Shlepn - שלעפן
Shlepn - שלעפן \SHLEP-en\ Verb \ Past Participle: Geshlept:
To drag, haul, carry, lug, tug, pull, draw (with reflexive zikh [זיך] - to trudge, plod along).
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
Synonyms: shepn (שעפן), tsien (ציען), tsupn (צופן).
German equivalents: fördern, schleifen, tragen, zerren, ziehen.
Etymology: The word derives from...
Index to Yiddish Periodicals
For those interested, the Index to Yiddish Periodicals, an ongoing project of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Beth Shalom Aleichem (Tel-Aviv), is a fabulous resource for those who wish to investigate the wealth of Yiddish periodical literature published in Europe, America, and Israel (Palestine) in the years before and after the Second World War. It comprises approximately 210,000 (!)...
Anonymous asked: What does the graffiti on the wall say in the pix included with the word "teylin"?
April 2012
6 posts
Teyln - טיילן
Teyln - טיילן \TEYL-en\ Verb \ Past Participle Geteylt:
To divide, apportion (with reflexive zikh [זיך] - to be divided, be divisible).
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
Synonyms: tsefirn (צעפירן), tsepitslen (צעפיצלען), tsesheydn (צעשיידן).
German equivalents: dividieren, scheiden, spalten, teilen, trennen.
Etymology: The word derives...
Archives of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish...
For those interested, the Archives of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories(AHEYM - “homeward” in Yiddish) is an oral history research project of Indiana University Profs. Dov-Ber Kerler and Jeffrey Veidlinger which seeks to record for posterity the memories and legacies of Yiddish-speaking Jews who remained in Europe after the War. From 2002-2010, Kerler and Veidlinger traveled...
Reynikn - רייניקן
Reynikn - רייניקן \REYN-ik-en\ Verb \ Past Participle Gereynikt:
To clean, cleanse, purify.
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation, and here for its use specifically in the context of Peysekh cleaning.
Synonyms: klern (קלערן), laytern (לייטערן), noki(נקי), putsn (פוצן), ramen (ראמען).
German equivalents: frischen, läutern, putzen, räumen,...
Umshlof Blog
For those interested, Umshlof (a Yiddish blog I have not as yet reviewed) posted traditional and creative Yiddish translations of some of the most beloved songs sung at the Peysekh sedorim (“The Four Question,” “Dayyenu,” “Had Gadya”). You can print them out and take them with you tonight! I am also including below a transcription and translation of the Yiddish...
March 2012
6 posts
Zak - זאק
Zak - זאק \ZAK\ Noun \ Masculine \ Pl. Zek:
A sack, bag.
Pronunciation: Click here to hear a native Yiddish speaker use this word in conversation.
Synonyms: baytl (בייטל), sakve (סאקווע), tash (טאש), torbe (טארבע).
German equivalents: der Beutel, die Entlassung, der Koffer, die Plünderung, der Rausschmiss, der Sack, die Tasche.
Etymology: The word derives from Middle High German...
Haynt
For those interested, the Forward recently reported that the famous Yiddish daily Haynt (Warsaw, 1908-1939) has been digitized by the good people at the Historic Jewish Press website. This site now allows you to search the text of the newspaper for articles appearing in the years 1919, 1921-1939. The site also features a good overview of the paper, its history, and significance written by Prof....
