I read the following mailbag entry and was a little surprised:
When I studied German, I learned the word bloed (The e can also be represented by an umlaut over the o), which means ‘stupid’ and is considered quite rude. I had always thought that the English term ‘bloody’ was somehow related to that German term. Is this simply a serendipitous coincedence or are there no coincedences?
In another matter, one of the smilies that can be used says the word ‘Putz’. This is actually the Yiddish word for the Hebrew word ‘pot’ (pronounced like the name of the guy from the killing fields of the Khmer Rouge, not like the popular name for marijuana). At any rate, this means ‘vagina’. Schmuck, incidently, means a penis. It is beyond me why it is that in Yiddish, genital organs are rude, but such is the case. There is just something entertaining about the fact that calling someone a schmuck or a putz is not considered offensive, and yet calling them a dick is…