# Ever heard the (possibly Yiddish) word 'gleep' as a pejorative for old man? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2005, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892 "2005-08-13T20:09:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892/21 "2018-01-06T23:26:14Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > ETA: American speaker (not in group), of Yiddish here, and by far the most common pejorative word for old man (old fart) is _alte kacker_, “old shitter.” Second that. Also, never heard the word in the OP. Not in a Yiddish conversation, or an English conversation. ---
**Author:** ![TubaDiva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tubadiva/32/507_2.png) [@TubaDiva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TubaDiva)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892/22 "2018-01-07T17:03:09Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > In my former lives I was a lousy amateur fencer and a better historian of Things Renaissance and Medieval. > > Isn’t **TubaDiva** , our estimable (ex?)mod into this stuff? Or maybe a different estimable SD mod…? No, this is not my area of expertise. At all. ---
**Author:** ![snowmaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@snowmaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowmaster)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892/23 "2018-01-07T21:53:51Z")
The only pejorative Yiddish I’ve ever heard for old man is Alter Kacker. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892/24 "2018-01-22T16:39:19Z")
> [@snowmaster](#): > > The only pejorative Yiddish I’ve ever heard for old man is Alter Kacker. Wouldn’t that be Alter K **n** acker? I’ve come across that in German, too. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892/25 "2018-01-22T21:54:43Z")
\*Glup \*[various spellings, but pronounced gloop, rhyming with stoop] is in various slavic languages meaning someone who is slow and stupid, or perhaps old and senile. Long stretch but may be a borrowed Russian / Polish word rather than Yiddish among Jewish emigres. aaaaand …[type type type] YES ! It is one of the [Nadsat slang words](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:A_Clockwork_Orange#G) used by Alex and his droogs in Clockwork Orange, with the meaning of ‘stupid’. Was the Twolight Zone protagonist wearing a bowler hat? ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2018, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892/26 "2018-01-22T22:41:52Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Wouldn’t that be Alter K **n** acker? I’ve come across that in German, too. > > Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk No it’s definitely “_kacker_” (shitter). But there is that word I know from Yinglish, if not Yiddish directly, which rhymes with it, and I suppose the adjective “old” could make sense. I’ve always heard “he’s a _k’nocker_”–first k pronounced–to mean someone who is more or less equivalent, but perhaps with more _gravitas_, to a (Yiddish, again) _macher_ (again, the first syllable rhymes, but the “ch” is that x-throat clear), a big shot who gets things done (“macher”\<–“maker”). No idea on etymology of _"k’nocker_." [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-heard-the-possibly-yiddish-word-gleep-as-a-pejorative-for-old-man/316892.md?page=1)