1875, from Yiddishyidish,from Middle High Germanjüdisch"Jewish" (in phrasejüdisch deutsch"Jewish-German"), fromjude"Jew," from Old High Germanjudo, from LatinIudaeus(seeJew). The English word has been re-borrowed in German asjiddisch. As an adjective from 1886. Related:Yiddishism. ...
1.a word, phrase, or linguistic feature characteristic of or peculiar to Yiddish. 2.the advocacy of Yiddish language and literature. [1925–30] Yid′dish•ist,n. Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House,...
1. Non-Jewish girl or woman. 2. A ditzy, generally busty, female Pronounciation is closer to [SHIK-suh]. This is the kind of word grandmothers use to describe the blonde boy-toys that their teenage grandsons want to date. Generally insulting to a woman's mental abilities. As in, "...
For a long time before megillah was the word that was used to refer to an overlong story or convoluted production its primary meaning was a considerably different one. The Megillah is typically read out loud from a scroll in course of certain Jewish holidays. At the beginning of the 20th ce...
Jewish Objects An old amulet, in Hebrew, for a newborn child: for a boy to grow in learning of Torah, and for all children to be protected from disease (found by renovators of a flat in the Old Town) A bottle ofPeysakhóvkefrom Lublin that made its way to 1930s Vilna, where it...
A long, involved sales pitch, as in, “I had to listen to his whole spiel before I found out what he really wanted.” From the German word forplay. shikse A non-Jewish woman, all too often used derogatorily. It has the connotation of “young and beautiful,” so referring to a ma...
The article keys out the reasons for the revival of Ashkenazi Jews' mother tongue known as the mame loshen. One reason is the end of sibling rivalry, which is indicated to have waned after much of Israel's insecurity has been shed. Another reason is the alternate source of identity, which...
A mob of several thousand Jews protested outside the Mograbi Theater in Tel Aviv on this date in 1930 against the screening of one of the first feature-length Yiddish-language talkie movies, Mayn Yidishe Mame (“My Jewish Mother”), starring Seymour Rexite. The rioters included several members...
Notes on Yiddish and Transcription ConventionsABRIEFHISTORY OF THEYIDDISHLANGUAGEYiddish is one of many post-exilic Jewish languages—including, forexample, Judeo-French, Judeo-Spanish (or Ladino), Judeo-Greek, andJudeo-Arabic— that traces its origins to a mixture of several sources,what linguist...
As Ron got to know our Jewish traditions, he embraced them as his own and eagerly participated. Because of Ron’s warm and loving ways, my parents welcomed him into the family. My mother would say about Ron, “He’s so hamisha,” which in Yiddish means, “He’s so co...