SO, MAYBE A LIST YOU COULD HELP THEM WITH THE MAKING OF? Jeffrey Goldberg and Alana Newhouse are compiling a list of non-Yiddish words which, nevertheless, only Jews use. Their examples include "luncheon," "Federation" (always capitalized, of course) and "traipsing." My apologies to the Gentiles among our readership for whom not so much of this is interesting.
Also via Tablet: Fred Flintstone's Jewish roots.
I think there's some cultural myopia going on here.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I use traipse and livid with some regularity. On the other hand, I also use farkakte all the time. That's a great word.
ReplyDeleteI frequently use traipse and was heretofore unaware that I was a member of the tribe.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom was an Irish Catholic and she used "traipsing" frequently, usually it alternated with "gallivanting".
ReplyDeleteMy French-Canadian Catholic mother uses "gallivanting" regularly. She also uses livid, as do I.
ReplyDeleteTotal WASP and I traipse.
ReplyDeleteAnd Southerners go to luncheons all the time, unless it's being used in a context I'm not understanding. I went to the official Senior Class Luncheon the day of my high school graduation and just the other day offered to take my roommate to the local drugstore that still has a luncheon counter.
Mauve? Now, admittedly, I pronounced it wrong until I was in my teens ("Mau" came out "maw" not "mow"). And I covet my grandmother's cedar sideboard. Although she calls it a buffett.
And I'm the last member of my family on my father's side to still have my gallbladder. Not only do we discuss gall bladders, my dad proudly displayed the largest stone on the mantel after his surgery.
Livid? Used all the time around here. It's terribly easy to say "livid" with clenched teeth while clutching one's pearls. My dad uses it all the time when spelling it out "I was l-i-v-i-d LIVID."
I'm also amongst the goyim, and use "livid" with some regularity.
ReplyDeleteAnd "Federation" capitalized is in use amongst at least one other marginalized group--Trekkies.
ReplyDeleteAlmost all them are used by Christina and me. Is it a Midwest thing?<span> </span>
ReplyDeleteAs a southerner with midwestern roots, I note that I use most of those terms, as do plenty of other non-Jews of my acquaintance. Luncheon, livid, and traipsing are particularly bad examples of what they are trying to show.
ReplyDeleteNew Englander here with a very non-Jewish background (until I went to college, the only person I knew who was Jewish was my 3rd grade teacher, who had recently moved from NYC... this changed dramatically when I went to SUNY Albany), and I and mine use many of these words frequently, especially gallivanting and livid. Also gall stones, but that is because I have gall bladder attacks.
ReplyDeleteEven though I know sideboard is a piece of dining room furniture, where I come from it's frequently used to refer to the kitchen countertop.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will talk to anyone about my gall stones. :) (I'm pregnant, and really miserable, so I bitch to whomever will listen.)
ReplyDeleteOther than that, yeah, I use most of those words.
So maybe not so much with this one, nu?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the pregnancy!
ReplyDeleteUmm, are there good examples though? I feel like there is something to the idea if not these particular expressions....
ReplyDeleteI think the only one of these I don't use is appetizing as a noun, but now I kind of want to.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm half Irish, half French, all (lapsed) Catholic, and I use traipsing, gallivanting and livid with some regularity.
ReplyDeletelooks like someone "doesn't know from" goys.
ReplyDeleteWhat on earth? This is a total nontroversy (a non-Yiddish word that only the spacepeople use). I call shenanigans.
ReplyDeleteHow about using "by" instead of "at" - i.e. "we're going to be by my in-laws for the holidays". I think that's a non-Yiddish Jewish-ism, but if others use it as well I will stand corrected.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, I think the use of "by" that way is, in fact, a Yiddishism stemming from the way the German preposition "bei" is used.
ReplyDeleteNo longer will only spacepeople use it. Certain of us on the East Coast now plan to adopt it as our own. First premorse, now nontroversey. I love it.
ReplyDeleteMatt and Watts, hate to tell you, but it's pretty clear from all the stuff you've said here over the years that you are both, in fact, Jewish. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteYup - it's also in the Yiddish construction: "By you he's a doctor, and by me he's a doctor, but by *doctors* is a he a doctor?"
ReplyDeleteIf people in this discussion have not read Leo Rosten's "The Joys of Yiddish," run, don't walk. It's worth it alone for the explanation of how a sentence, said by a Yid, will have completely different meanings based on which word is stressed:
I should buy two tickets for her concert?--meaning:, "After what she did to me?"
I should buy two tickets for her concert?--meaning: "What, you're giving me a lesson in ethics?"
I should buy two tickets for her concert?--meaning: I wouldn't go even if she were giving out free passes!
I should buy two tickets for her concert?--meaning: I'm having enough trouble deciding whether it's worth one.
I should buy two tickets for her concert?--She should be giving out free passes, or the hall will be empty.
I should buy two tickets for her concert?--Did she buy tickets to our daughter's recital?
I should buy two tickets for her concert?--You mean, they call what she does a "concert"?
I spent a lot of time reading Leo Rosten as a kid visiting my grandparents (who frowned upon me reading kids' books, sigh). Second the recommendation. I also liked his novels, Captain Newman, M.D., The Education of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N, and The Return of H*Y*M*A*N K*A*P*L*A*N. Don't know how they hold up today, since I haven't read them since the '80s.
ReplyDeleteMichael Wex seems to have taken up the mantle of Yiddishkeit books nowadays.
Marsha...that's funny stuff.
ReplyDeleteMatt...we too only know Federation in the context of Star Trek, and the phrase "Federation security!" can be heard on a daily basis in my home (not from my mouth).
Here's a word that I now believe has no basis in any language: spotseer (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong). I looked in up in a Yiddish glossary--nothing. I Googled it--nothing. Yet my father will say he spent the day "spotseering around" (roaming around, strolling through down, etc.). I believe he's speaking Paul-ish, which may be an adaptation of Polish??? Anyone?
Also soccer fans.
ReplyDeleteAw, you're too kind.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I'm not sure if I'm somewhat Jewish or just possessed by the spirit of a little old lady in South Florida who REALLY likes to play canasta while waiting for her eventual cholecystectomy.
Sounds like your dad has an idiolect: http://www.glossary.com/reference.php?q=Idiolect My dad does too. Unless there's someone else who says "Squeet" to mean "Let's go eat."
ReplyDeleteI am pleased to know that I am an honorary Jew.
ReplyDelete<p><span>I thought about coming up with an alternative list of words peculiar to Episcopalians, but we express ourselves most eloquently through nuanced, mostly close-lipped facial expressions. </span></p>
ReplyDeleteTo me, "Squeet" is just another Philadelphiaism along the lines of "Jeet yet?"
ReplyDeleteI also use gallivanting, a lot. It's a great word.
ReplyDelete"Kneeler" as a noun is the only Episcopalian-specific word I can think of.
ReplyDeleteWe use kneeler in Catholicism.
ReplyDeleteHa! I don't think my dad's ever even BEEN to Philadelphia. We thought it was a southern thing. Like, "yawt to" or "up air/over air."
ReplyDeleteI don't know "squeet" but "jeet yet?" is definitely part of my vocab. Alas, I know nothing of "spotseering" though it sounds like a useful term.
ReplyDelete