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Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

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foozles and schnipzies???
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1
2010/09/11 - 7:40am

My mother grew up in a German family in Brooklyn with many Jewish neighbors, and the words that interest me almost sound like they may have a Yiddish origin. I haven't heard them used outside of our immediate family, and grew up with them.
The first is "foozles"---the foo part of the word sounds like the beginning of the word foot. The rest of the word sounds like "zuls"with a short u. It refers to what other people call dust bunnies.
The second word is "schnipzies". Schnipzies are all the little pieces of cloth or paper left over after you have finished making something.
I like both of these words very much, but wonder if they were "family words" or were more commonly used in the German community. I would love to hear from anyone else who might be familiar with these terms.

Guest
2
2010/09/11 - 3:15pm

I have some German in my family background, but all our German is more formal. I'm not familiar with either of those words, which I agree could be either German or Yiddish.

Guest
3
2010/09/13 - 9:15am

I have heard the word "schnipzles" used to describe little pieces of something. The background of the speaker was German-Jewish, so it could be German, Yiddish, or some of each.

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