Yiddish Word of the Week

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?

postcardsfromcalifornia — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 13:59:29 -0500

The feminine singular forms of the adjectives “brave” and “strong” in Hebrew...

What is the etymology of "גיך" (gikh - "quickly")?

postcardsfromcalifornia — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 19:45:37 -0500

Yiddish gikh is cognate with New High German jäh (=abrupt, precipitous). Both of them stem from...

Photo

postcardsfromcalifornia — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 15:14:49 -0500

is word for newborn naphish not kimpotkind

postcardsfromcalifornia — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 08:45:43 -0500

The word for newborn with which I’m familiar is kimpetkind. Nefesh is generally used for...

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 thing.

postcardsfromcalifornia — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 17:05:47 -0500

Tatele, mamele, and bobele certainly are authentic Yiddish diminutives, but when they started being...

How should I pronounce "Chale" in a Jewish Bakery?

postcardsfromcalifornia — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 17:37:58 -0500

Probably the same way you pronounce it outside a Jewish bakery. As far as I know, there is no...

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.

postcardsfromcalifornia — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 13:34:28 -0500

The simple answer to your question is yes. See Alexander Beider, A Dictionary of Ashkenazic Given...

What happened to the Yiddish word of the week coming out weekly? The last time was 3 months ago

postcardsfromcalifornia — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 16:00:25 -0500

YWOTW is currently on hiatus due to looming deadlines, but we will be back soon!

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!

postcardsfromcalifornia — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:36:42 -0500

My version of Weinreich does not define moyl as having anything to do with animals in particular,...

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

postcardsfromcalifornia — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 09:35:58 -0500

Sounds like a good interpretation to me! Especially because makhn piskes means “to make...

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 for mouth (implying animal mouth). Does "piskele" make it nicer? TIA!

postcardsfromcalifornia — Tue, 04 Dec 2012 12:49:25 -0500

The diminutive -l or -ele ending is often used as an endearment. I would suspect that whoever...

"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.

postcardsfromcalifornia — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 14:30:06 -0500

The verb gefeln exists in Yiddish as well with the meaning “to please.” However,...

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!

postcardsfromcalifornia — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:21:34 -0500

Hmmm, I’m a little stumped by this one. The normal Yiddish word for “wonderful”...

"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!

postcardsfromcalifornia — Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:02:29 -0500

As our friends at the Yiddish WoD blog write, freg mikh bekheyrem means: even if you put me under...

what does grischke mean. My mother said it's like naging

postcardsfromcalifornia — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 09:26:35 -0400

That’s exactly it! Grizhen (the zh is pronounced like the J in the French name Jacques) means...

Reklamirin, Shulamit Seidler-Feller

postcardsfromcalifornia — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:39:54 -0400

Reklamirin, Shulamit Seidler-Feller

Reklamirn - רעקלאמירן

postcardsfromcalifornia — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:01:00 -0400

Reklamirn - רעקלאמירן \rek-la-MIR-en\ Verb \ Past Participle: Reklamirt: To advertise. Alternative...

Aaron and Sonia Fishman Foundation for Yiddish Culture

postcardsfromcalifornia — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:00:03 -0400

For those interested, the Aaron and Sonia Fishman Foundation for Yiddish Culture is a 501(c)(3)...

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?

postcardsfromcalifornia — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 16:15:06 -0400

It sounds to me like a dialectal issue. Weinreich writes about how in Central Yiddish...

Shtekn, Shulamit Seidler-Feller

postcardsfromcalifornia — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 23:51:56 -0400

Shtekn, Shulamit Seidler-Feller