The Yiddish language, they say, is a dying language. Too bad. It has so many interesting ways to express yourself. I wish I’d listened to my grandparent more when they spoke it and managed to learn more than the few common expressions I still remember, like (please excuse the spelling - it’s all phonetical from memory):
Schmuck - little prick
Putz - big schmuck
Dreck - garbage
Gay in drerd - drop dead
Itz in paravoz - fire in the steam engine (big deal!)
Dreinishken Kopp - Don’t twist my head (Don’t annoy me, Leave me alone)
Kish mir in touchas - Kiss my ass
Sheina Punim - Nice face (pretty face)
Shiksa - Gentile woman (ex. my wife)
Goy - Gentile man
Shaigitz - same as above but more derrogatory - I think
Shikker - drunkard
Shnorrer - bum, beggar
Shlemazle - unlucky - loosely translated
Oy, gevalt! - Oh my god!
Lechaim - to life
Shmaravoznik - manure wagon driver
Ketzeleh - sweetheart
Feel free to add some of your own favourites.
My Ma always used to say “Hock me Nicht in Chinek!” which meant “stop breaking my teapot.” She meant, “leave me alone, you annoying kid.”
She claims that that expression is some butchered form of Yiddish that was only known in the Latvian village where my great-grandparents (her maternal grandparents) came from.
Anyway, I would highly recommend Leo Rosten’s The Joy of Yiddish to anyone who loves Yiddish. A great read.
schmuck: limp dick
putz: a hard dick
schlemeal: a guy who spills coffee on someone
schlemazle: the guy he spills coffee on
tsuris: aggravation
ajita (italian): aggravation + nausea
gonif: theif/con-man
meshuggenah: crazy
fleklempt (sp?)- choked up, agitated (made famous by that guy on SNL, but taught to me by the Yiddish grandmother of a girl I dated in college who also called me a “noodge” as in “Frannie, that goy you date, he’s such a noodge. Oy! Why don’t you find a good Jewish boy. Please, I’m feeling a little fleklempt.” She even had separate silverware, plates, and glassware for me at her house.
Hey Green Bean, we must be descended from the same village then. My mother used to say that phrase (or one close to it - don’t hock me a Chinek) all the time. I must’ve been a pest.
My grandmother was my Baba (some say Babiev).
My mom also used to tell me, lay keppe and gay schloffen (lay your head down and go to sleep).
I had a Sunday school teacher that taught us a song called Yiddle mit den Fiddle. Funny how I can still remember that song (but I don’t dare try to butcher it here).
Thanks for the fond memories, QuickSilver.
“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” - Anne Frank
I thought Shiksa was a gentile woman that chased Jewish men and Shaigitz was the same thing with genders reversed. I wasn’t aware either was derogatory. At least I hope not as I’ve been called that at one time.
