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This is a list of words that have entered the English language from the Yiddish language, many of them by way of American English.There are differing approaches to the romanization of Yiddish orthography (which uses the Hebrew alphabet); thus, the spelling of some of the words in this list may be variable (for example, shlep is a variant of schlep, and shnozz, schnoz).
Yiddish was a rich, living language, the chattering tongue of an urban population. It had the limitations of its origins. There were few Yiddish words for animals and birds. It had virtually no military vocabulary. Such voids were filled by borrowing from German, Polish and Russian.
According to etymologist Douglas Harper, the phrase is derived from Yiddish and is of Germanic origin. [4] It is cognate with the German expression o weh, or auweh, combining the German and Dutch exclamation au! meaning "ouch/oh" and the German word Weh, a cognate of the English word woe (as well as the Dutch wee meaning pain).
Schmuck, or shmuck, is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (Yiddish: שמאָק, shmok), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is a vulgar term for a penis.
Shiksa (Yiddish: שיקסע, romanized: shikse) is an often disparaging [1] term for a gentile [a] woman or girl. The word, which is of Yiddish origin, has moved into English usage and some Hebrew usage (as well as Polish and German), mostly in North American Jewish culture.
In some languages, derivations of the word "Hebrew" are also in use to describe a Jew, e.g., Ebreo in Italian and Spanish, Ebri / Ebrani (Persian: عبری/عبرانی) in Persian and Еврей Yevrey in Russian. [4] (See List of Jewish ethnonyms for a full overview.) The German word Jude is cognate with the Yiddish word for "Jew", Yid. [5]
Sheigetz or shegetz (שייגעץ or in Hebrew שֵׁיְגֶּץ; alternative Romanizations incl. shaygetz, shaigetz, sheygets) with the alternative form shkotz (plural: sheygetses and shkotzim, respectively [1]) is a Yiddish word that has entered English to refer to a non-Jewish boy or young man. It may also be used by an observant Jew when ...
Being Yiddish, the meaning can change by the use of gestures and a change in tone, so that tsatskele can become the favorite child. Leo Rosten, author of The Joys of Yiddish, combines the two main meanings and gives an alternative sense of tchotchke as meaning a young girl, a "pretty young thing".