The Yiddish word bupkis means nothing, and speakers sometimes split its syllables apart to exaggerate how empty that is. One example from an email in Denton, Texas: “Not only did the government shut down, but the employees are collecting bup and kis.” The word comes from terms for beans and goat droppings, which can resemble polished beans. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Yiddish “Bupkis” Means Nothing, and Saying “Bup and Kis” Splits the Word to Emphasize Exactly How Nothing It Is”
We get lots of email, Martha.
Some of it is great.
Some of it is awesome.
Some of it is funny.
Don’t I know it.
We’ve got this great email from Clinton Bates in Denton, Texas.
Did you see this?
Clinton from Denton?
No.
He’s got a story to tell us.
Well, he found a use of the word bupkis, which is a Yiddish word that means nothing,
where people, in order to emphasize that it means nothing,
they’ll separate the two syllables out, right?
What?
Yeah, so you might say, not only did the government shut down,
but the employees are collecting bup and cuss.
It just emphasized the zerowness of bupkis, right?
And if you Google this, you’ll find a lot of people are doing that,
just to exaggerate exactly how nothing bupkis is.
Is that right?
Yeah.
And I think it derives from a word that means either beans or goat droppings.
It’s both, actually.
Is it?
Goat droppings do sometimes look like little polished beans.
Anyway, if you want to talk about language, this is the place.
Call us, 877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
