Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ____________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 24.004 December 29, 2014 1) You Know More Yiddish Than You Think (Bennett Muraskin) 2) Shamus (Leyer Gillig) 3) Ganef, Shamus and Schemozzle (Oron Joffe) 4) Schemozzle (David H. Spodick) 5) "Collar stay" etc. (Yonason Felendler) 6) "dizhdik" / "dishdik" (Peter Belenky) 7) "Fraye mine" (Rachel Mines) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 15 Subject: You Know More Yiddish Than You Think https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://jewishcurrents.org/you-know-more-yiddish-than-you-think-34215&k=dpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=ubET9YI7QoMEm5q4oYb5pKSG0nQhDXxsupJay4H5Q8o%3D%0A&m=eKIFg8kcpD4OnRJpZsiyQSA0wW%2F9EqE75Uw4DRe3eaw%3D%0A&s=96b71a3652ff5cbcbe63e75ba5b89e22bbd3cf296c9b1050fd308cfd36d08a59 Bennett Muraskin 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 22 Subject: Shamus [Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.003] I know Jews like to take credit for everything, but to me it makes more sense that Shamus (detective), which word first appears in the 1920's, is derived from the common Irish name Seamus (pronounced the same), which means James, and was applied to police officers, of whom a large percentage were Irish immigrants or first-generation Irish-Americans. Leyzer Gillig [Moderator’s note: identical response received from Goldie Morgentaler] 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 23 Subject: Ganef, Shamus and Schemozzle Regarding Amy Kaufman's question [24.003], a ganef in Yiddish is primarily a thief but can also be used to indicate a rascal or a sly fellow. I don't know if it has "always" carried the secondary meaning (the word does not mean that in Hebrew), but it appears in that sense in Harkavy's dictionary 1925. "Schemozzle", to the best of my knowledge, is not a word in Yiddish, but it looks looks like a mispronunciation or mistransliteration of shlemazl, a clumsy and unlucky person or a loser. This meaning is of course quite far from a "free for all". Finally, a shamus looks like a distortion of shames (from Hebrew Shamash), a beadle or a sexton (or a similar role in other settings). However, in Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" the word is used as to mean a "peace maker" (gun) on the policemen's fictional lingo. In other words, it looks like the author of the crossword-puzzle's knowledge of Yiddish leaves a lot to be desired. Oron Joffe 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 24 Subject: Schemozzle [Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.003] "Schemozzle is Scots and English for "a muddle" "a complicated situation". My Shorter Oxford Dictionary thinks it may be patterned on our "shlimazel"--- but that's a person. David H. Spodick* * now there's a Yiddish word for you! "drehen a spodik" = hacken a chainik" 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 23 Subject: "Collar stay" etc. a) How would one say a collar stay in Yiddish? b) How would one say shoe-taps (the ones that are nailed on the bottom so as not to rub out the heel from walking)? c) How would one say a nebulizer? d) How would one say a drill bit? I understand that many of these words weren't used in the shtetlekh, but for those words, what do some have to suggest? I'll take ideas and I'll choose for myself. Thanks! Y. Felendler 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 23 Subject: "dizhdik" / "dishdik" [See 24.002-3] Since no one has claimed immediate familiarity with the usage, I would suggest another etymology: From Russian dozhd’ (rain), combined with the Yiddish/German adjectival ending –ig or –ik. Peter Belenky Washington, DC 7)---------------------------------------------------- Date: December 23 Subject: "Fraye mine" I'm wondering if anyone can help me with an idiom, "fraye mine," that I, and others I've asked so far, are not familiar with. The context is a short story in which the father is ill and the children are supposed to keep out of his way. The previous sentence describes how difficult life is in the home when the father is ill. The sentence in question is: "Mir kinder hobn nisht getort keyn fraye mine bavayzn, ver redt shoyn fun a shtif ton," which I've tentatively translated as "We kids weren't even allowed to make faces, let alone play pranks." Two alternative translations, "We children did not dare express ourselves" and "We kids weren't even allowed to show our faces" have also been suggested to me. So far, then, I have three possibilities for "fraye mine": make faces; show our faces; express ourselves. Any other ideas? BTW, this is my first posting, as I'm a "new" translator - I'm looking forward to joining the discussions! Thanks! Rachel Mines ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol. 24.004 Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, direct your mail as follows: Material for Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements, i.e. announcements of events, commercial publications, requests to which responses should be sent exclusively to the request's author, etc., always in plain text (no HTML or the like) to: [email protected] (in the subject line write Mendele Personal) Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language, i.e. inquiries and comments of a non-commercial or publicity nature: [email protected] IMPORTANT: Please include your full name as you would like it to appear in your posting. No posting will appear without its author's name. 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