A Tallahassee, Florida, listener heard an interview in which actor William H. Macy referred to old cockers, apparetly meaning “old fellows.” Although one meaning of cocker is “pal,” Macy was probably alluding to the Yiddish...
The verb to kibitz has more than one meaning. It can mean “to chitchat” or “to look on giving unsolicited advice.” The word comes to English through Yiddish, and may derive from German Kiebitz, a reference to a folk belief...
If someone sneezes while you’re saying something, a Yiddish speaker might say “G’nossem tsum emes,” or “The sneeze confirmed the truth,” meaning that what you just said is true, and the sternutation proves it. An...
We need a common word for “the parents of your son-in-law or daughter-in-law.” Although English has the word affines, it’s rarely used outside of such fields as anthropology or psychiatry. Other languages have more commonly used...
The history of German and Yiddish speakers in the United States has lead to a wealth of calques, in which the grammar of one language is applied to another. This is part of a complete episode.
The Yiddish Project on Twitter translates Yiddish proverbs into English, such as, “Ask advice from everyone but act with your own mind.” It’s not far from Martha’s favorite advice from her North Carolina-born father:...