# Yiddish **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 15, 1999, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772 "1999-06-15T03:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2026, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/61 "2026-01-06T23:20:44Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > It’s usually used as a mild insult akin to “fool”, but literally means “penis” Maybe. I’ve also heard that it’s derived from the Hebrew word “Shemen” (oil) and the Yiddish word “Dreck” (shit), so literally, “oily shit”. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/62 "2026-01-06T23:38:26Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > Also, is this a record for oldest zombie? I’ve heard of the “Yiddish Revival”, but this is meshuggena. Quite possibly. An older zombie wasn’t even possible until a couple of months ago. At the time of any bumping of a 99 thread, it’s likely the record for oldest zombie. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2026, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/63 "2026-01-06T23:40:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > An older zombie wasn’t even possible until a couple of months ago. Is this a variation on the meme “If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”? Which means that every '99 thread necromanced back into life is the next record holder. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2026, 10:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/64 "2026-01-07T10:08:51Z")
> [@Thing.Fish](#): > > > [@DPRK](#): > > > > It is just a proper name, at the end of the day. Maybe you could find an analogous female character? > > Huh? It’s usually used as a mild insult akin to “fool”, but literally means “penis”. Per Wikipedia, which seems unaware of the literal meaning, it’s been used by Jewish humorists as the name of fictional characters, but I can’t imagine it’s any real person’s name. Right— it is the name of a fictional character in some play(s). Suppose we were talking about Romeo; then the analogous question would be, what do we call a female Romeo? > [@Alessan](#): > > In Hebrew, which is highly gendered and has a look history of adapting Yiddish word, we’d say “Schmendrickit”. Does that make sense in Yiddish, though? How about “shmendrickin”? ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2026, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/65 "2026-01-11T14:58:50Z")
just as a general heads-up: Jiddish has a huge amount of (older) german in it - as much that a typical (but smart/aware) german speaker could easily understand it. … and I imagine a smart/aware Jiddish speaker would also understand a person speaking contemporary german. There are a couple of words that have seem to fallen out of favor, so my (rather uneducated) guess is, it is like a 2026 german speaker speaking with a 1750 german speaker. here a nice YT vid of people going back and forth in jiddish and german in a zoom call (made to check compatability) … cued to the right moment … [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2ugUjEk8dVY/maxresdefault.jpg "Can German and Yiddish Speakers Understand Each Other?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ugUjEk8dVY&t=213) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2026, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/66 "2026-01-11T15:06:46Z")
My father grew up speaking Yiddish as a second language and was close to fluent. It was relatively easy for him to learn German as a result. He travelled there frequently on business. There are a lot of cognates and you can kind of figure out a lot of the time what the German word would be. Yiddish has a lot of Hebrew loan words or words modified from Hebrew so it doesn’t always work. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2026, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/67 "2026-01-11T15:07:12Z")
cant edit b/c of TY, but I am doing way better than the german bursche in understanding the yiddish… like 3 times better … its one of those things where you can understand 95+% by recognizing 80% of the words … and that is good enough for a meaningful conversation (using hands and feet as well 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/68 "2026-01-12T23:26:56Z")
My father’s first language was Yiddish (although he was born and grew up in South Philly) and when we had a German neighbor, he was able to communicate well enough with him. Amusingly my father always claimed that Yiddish was not a language but a jargon and had no grammar; you just strung words together at random. Of course this is nonsense. He learned English in first grade. ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2026, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/69 "2026-01-12T23:40:31Z")
Same for my father, but in Toronto. His grandmother lived with them when he was little and she spoke very little English, just Yiddish and Russian although as a family policy they never spoke Russian. He lost his fluency once my great grandmother was gone and only picked a little back up in retirement when he and my mother took lessons. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/70 "2026-01-13T05:24:30Z")
Why the spelling “Jiddish”? ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2026, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/71 "2026-01-13T09:28:48Z")
I think they were conflating the English “Yiddish” with the German “Jiddische”. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772/72 "2026-01-15T02:03:58Z")
Oh my father kept his Yiddish because that’s what he spoke to his parents (whose English was always kind of sketchy) until they died (he was about 60 when his mother died). Amusingly, the synagogue they belonged to invited the Phillies announcer, named “Gene Kelly” to the men’s club to give a talk and he started his speaking Yiddish. But of course not every congregant spoke it and he soon switched to English. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/yiddish/1772.md?page=3)