Some Yiddish Terms

Shalom, understanding monotheist culture requires an understanding of some basic Jewish vocabulary i.e Yiddish terms. Somebody use these terms and even you meet them mainstream. I saw recently in a local paper that they used the word hutzbah in a headline without any real definition of it assuming that the whole gentile world knows what hutzbah is.

Yiddish, first of all, is a language the Jewish people spoke and still speak for about a thousand years. It is written in Hebrew letters but it has a lot of dramatic words. It is a kind of combination of German and Hebrew. It has begun really by the Jews of Germany and then it spread throughout Eastern Europe and they are spoken today by Hassidim and by Yiddishes.

There has been a kind of revival of Yiddishes of sorts. There is lot of extensive literature from Yiddish but modern Jews at least know a few Yiddish terms. A lot of people in my generation learn a few words because the parents spoke Yiddish and they did not want us to understand what they were saying. In my grandparents’ generation, Yiddish was the common language in the household.

First of all, what is this hutzbah? Hutzbah is kind of daring and arrogance, kind of person that would appeal for mercy from the court after killing his parents on the ground that he is an orphan. That would be a hutzbah. Of course, there is a wonderful book about hutzbah by a professor which about the need to be more aggressive and pro assertive. That is the way hutzbah is used.

Shlamil and shlamazo, two words for kind of near do-well people. Old story that the shlamazo will spill the soup on the shlamil or the shlamil will spill the soup on the shlamazo, words for people that are kind done in their work, that seem to be the near do-wells of society and another word for that is the midiskin.

Ganaf is a thief. The Hebrew word for steal is ganev so ganaf is a thief. A shiker is somebody who gets drunk. To be farblonjet will be to be driving aimlessly with getting lost and not knowing where you are going, being farblonjet in life having no real direction.

A lot of people in other words shlab, shlab is to take kind of heavy burden, carry one thing to another place or bring something or shlab somebody along. A shtikel is a little bit so I signed for an episode recently where this non-Jewish Danish converts to Judaism and doing that so that we can tell anti-Semitic jokes freely and he says give me a shtikel of fluoride or a little bit of fluoride.

For besena, it would be for somebody who is kind of grouchy or they often refer to besena face. In fact, you would say for besena punom. Panim is the word for face, countenance, cheeks but for besena punom would be a kind of a grouchy face.

My father used to call us a ketzel which is the Yiddish word for little kid. A ketzel or a ketzelah. Katlafa, it is topically is a patchier but somebody who likes to cause us trouble, trouble would be a kaflakah.

Now, machetonim, macheteniste, those are the words for in-laws so machetonim would be the father in law or your daughter’s husband’s father would be the machetonim. Your daughter’s husband’s mother would be the macheteniste and the two of them would be in the hut. And sometimes used generally for in laws the machatana.

Hakakam, a haham in Hebrew means a wise person but a hakakam is kind of like a wise guy. You got to clear your throat twice for that. A maven is somebody who knows a lot about things or somebody who thinks that he knows about a lot of things. Once the Yiddish say kap, a kind of Jewish brain usually used in a positive way, say a person is a Yiddish kap.

It is a Yiddish kite, in general Judaism so if you hear an old joke about the rabbi who wants to give a sermon. It is fershebbat in the presence of what you talked about in the Shebbat. It is no longer talking about Shebbat people here working on a Sabbath. What do you want to talk about? How about kashur? People here do not keep kosher relish. What do you want me to talk about then? You know, Yiddish kite sort of like a generic vanilla Judaism.

Now, what is a shmendrik? Shemendrik, a no good nick. How about a mench? That is really one of the best words that you can say about somebody. It really means a man but a good man, a pious man, a decent man, a mench.

What about the word chakis, those are like little things you have around the house, sort of I have got lot of chakis, lots of things around the house, kind of clatter or collections of things. One Jewish joke about the word Ferguson, how did a Jew named Ferguson? Ferguson means forgot and so the Jew gets to the asylum and he can not remember anything or is confused and the guy in the asylum says to him, “what is your name?” and he has said, “Ferguson, Ferguson!” “I forgot!” That is how Jews got to be Ferguson.

Those are some of the common Yiddish terms. That is for you. What is a hutzbah? Go back and listen if you do not remember. What is shlamil? What is shlamazo? What is a ganaf? What is a shikker? What is to be farblonjet? What is shlab? What is a shtikel? What is forbesena? Who is the kaflafel? Who are the machetonim? What is a hakkam? What is a maven? What is a Yiddish kap? What is a Yiddish grey? What is a shmendrik? What is a mench? What is chakis? And what is Ferguson?

To some basic new Jewish terms, Yiddish terms will do some more in another time. One famous one is good yontiff which is good yan tov for Happy Holiday!