TOP 10 YIDDISH WORDS
USED BY WILLIAM SAFIRE
by
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe

Syosset, New York

William Safire passed away, but his "On Language" columns in The New York Times will be remembered by his many readers.

Safire wrote about "vocabugap"--a word he was forced to coin today to describe the situations in our lives for which we have no English word--and have to turn to a foreign language for lexical expansion.

He said [1994], "People who are unwilling to try new words are the type who refrain from dunking doughnuts."

Safire's Top 10 Yiddish Words:

1.  "shtarker"
      Strong-minded person willing to wield
      power

2.  "schlep"
      To pull; to drag.  Dunkin' Donuts urged
      customers to try its new bagels through
      the use of billboards reading:  "It is
      worth the schlep."

3.  "schmooze"
     To chat.  "High Schmooze," a film and TV
     term, represents a Hollywood event with
     a high proportion of "players" in
     attendance.

4.  "tchotchke"
     A trinket or knick-knack.
     Barbra Streisand  [Look magazine,
     1969], talks about her thrift shop
     goodies, her art works, and her favorite
     things:  "I'm a slave to all my tchotchkes."

5.  "tochis"/"tokhes" - the buttocks
     Safire wrote that "there are vast swaths
     of the nation where nobody knows a
     tochis from a tchotchke.  Growing up in
     the flyover, I learned the English word
     tush, "nonsense" - immortalized in the
     "Mikado" character Pish Tush - long
    before I was introduced to tushies."

    David Bader ("Haikus for Jews"), wrote,
       Yenta  Schmeer.  Gevalt.
       Shlemiel.  Shlimazl.  Tochis.
       Oy!  To be fluent!

6.  "meshuggeneh"
     Crazy.
      Jackie Mason writes, "A man sees John
      Gotti about to park his car in a space,
      and then decides to beat him to it. 
      That's real meshuggener.
      ("How to Talk Jewish")

     meshugener (m), meshegenah (f):  A
     loony.  Whether he thinks his underwear
     is after him or barrels over Niagara Falls,
     he's one letter short of an M&M.
       ("The Yiddish Dictionary of Fools" by
       Marnie Winston-Macauley)

7.  "mishegoss"/"meshugas"
     Mad, insane, a piece of tomfoolery
     Barbra Streisand, in a 1977 Playboy
     interview, spoke about being in group
     therapy.  "I'm finding out about life,
     talking to people, hearing what they
     feel and think  They've got the same
     meshagoss I do; it has nothing to do
     with my being an actress"

8.  "gay vays" 
     Go know
     "Gay vays that [in 2008] l in 5 of JDaters
     say their mother paid for their JDate
     membership."

9.  "mishpoche"
     Family.  Sid Caesar used many
     Yiddishisms in his skits.  One of his most
     memorable was a Japanese skit called
     "Gantze Mishpoche."

Jackie Mason wrotes, "When a friend asks, 'So how's the family?'  and the Jew answers, 'Don't ask!' he will then tell you anyway--for three hours.  The most dangerous thing for a Jew is one word about the mishpocheh because he's always dying to tell you...If you happen not to use the word mishpocheh right away, he'll be listening for it for the next hour and a half, because there's no way you can get away from the other Jew, especially if he has two children.  And if one's a doctor, you're there all day."      ("How to Talk Jewish")

10. "beygl"
      Bagel.  A donut with rigor mortis.  A
      doughnut dipped in cement.
    
---------------------   
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of two books:  "Yiddish For Dog & Cat Lovers"
and "Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction?  Yiddish Trivia."

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___________________________________________
Marjorie Gottlieb Wolfe is the author of
two books:

"Yiddish for Dog & Cat Lovers" and
"Are Yentas, Kibitzers, & Tummlers Weapons of Mass Instruction?  Yiddish
Trivia."  To order a copy, go to her
website: MarjorieGottliebWolfe.com

NU, what are you waiting for?  Order the book!