Top 10 useful Yiddish words

My family doesn't use Yiddish much, I have to confess. But there are a few words which prove useful from time to time, expressive words for which there is no exact English equivalent. So, prompted by a new book Let's Schmooze by my friend Julian Sinclair, here are my top 10 useful Yiddish words:

1. Schmooze: I'll start with that. Julian says it means "to chat". But we can just say "chat" when we want to, can't we? Schmooze is a useful word to describe a sort of flirtatious, flattering chat. Tony Blair and Bill Clinton schmooze. Gordon Brown and Hillary Clinton chat.

2. Schlepp. This means to carry, but in general use means carrying something burdensome. There is no better word to describe the experience of carrying a heavy cardboard box. It is also a useful term for annoying journeys. Travelling from Birmingham to London is a trip. Travelling from London to Birmingham is a schlepp.

3. Broyges: This word is ideal to describe arguments between friends and relatives that turn into long standing rifts and feuds. Often the parties don't talk. Lyndon Johnson and Robert Kennedy reached that state. Breugas is one of Gordon Brown's favourite conditions.

4, 5 and 6. Schlemiel, Schlimazl, and Nebbish. Best way to distinguish the terms? The schlemiel (clumsy person) spills soup on the schlimazl (unlucky person) and the nebbish (loser) has to clean it up. Fill in your own political names.

7. Chutspah. Pronounced as if it was Tottenham Chutspah, not mango chutspah, it means boldface cheek. Gordon Brown's claiming to be against spin is chutspah.  My favorite chutspah joke is the man going to a bookshop counter and saying "I'll have a book on chutspah and you're paying."

8. Naches. Means a mixture of pride and gratification. Grandparents experience this as their grandchild performs particularly well at his Bar Mitzvah. Not to be confused with the dish served with cheese in Mexican restaurants. The ch is pronounced as with chutspah.

9. Lobbus. Means a useless, pointless, lazy, generally fat person. If John Prescott was lazy he'd be a lobbus.

10. Meshugge. Means an eccentric craziness. A messhugas is the object about which the meshugge is crazy. The nature of modern journalism is Alastair Campbell's mushuggas.

Comments

[Munin]

Trepverter, from Saul Bellow's Herzog:

"... in the Yiddish of his long-dead mother, trepverter - words that came too late, when you were already on your way down the stairs."

Closely related to the German treppenwitz - the wit of the stairway.

[Tim Worstall]

Nebbish: "Someone with so little personality that when they leave the room you feel as if someone has just walked in".- from Leo Rosten (I think).

[Alan Vanneman]

Speaking as a card-carrying goy (an Episcopalian, even), can't we skip the cute definitions of "chutspah"? I never heard one that didn't make me groan.

As for "trepverter/treppenwitz," let's give credit where credit is due--it was "esprit d'escalier" when Diderot said it, and not in Yiddish.

[JRosen]

How about:

Schmaltz: literally chicken fat. Corny, overdone, sentimental (to a nauseating degree)

Tuchus: behind, derriere, as in 'tuchus affen tisch' = "put your ass on the table" i. e. put your money where your mouth is, stand up

(The best) Mensch: literally man (as in German) but meaning a true man, with integrity, responsibility, and courage (not of the heroic but of the day-to-day sort); one who meets his human obligations...and who need not be male! And anyone who claims himself to be such automatically disqualifies himself. The highest praise for one departed. The polar antipode of the types who are running our country today.

[GM]

You can't mention 'naches' without its evil twin, 'tsurris' - meaning pain, heartache, trouble.

Oh, and Munin's 'trepverter' has a (slightly) more commonly-known French cognate - l'esprit de l'escalier.

[Lou Groner]

..or the French sagace d'escalier.

[lance]

my favorite: ongepotchket: messily thrown together, over done, excessively decorated. I think the word just sounds so exactly like what it means.

[jet]

"Naches" has a corollary of sorts in "yiches," (pride in) family ancestry or heritage. Naches you get from the accomplishments of your children and grandchildren; yiches you inherit - and you can disgrace it, and bring tsurris to the mishpuchah (family), by doing something such as dropping out of medical school to hitch-hike across the Himalayas with a shikseh (non-Jewish girl).

[Silverbrow]

Then there's gedempte, used to describe food that is so overcooked it's falling off the bone. I wish it was on more menus, rather than the namby pamby 24 hour cooked lamb it should simply say gedempte lamb.

I'm not sure what the etymology is but Jay Rayner reckons it can have onomatoepic tendencies as well. In this instance he was right.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,,2113747,00.html

[Ken]

Don't forget " putz"

[sabrina]

How could you leave off "schmuck"? Simplicity aside, it's one of the most satisfying insults in my vocabulary - even more so after someone told me the literal translation.

[taxpayer2]

Yenta
Verklempf
Schmendrick
Kenohorah
Goneff
Nosh
Mensch
Schiksa
Macher
Schpritz

[Rebecca]

Poopik--bellybutton.