Dave Wilton’s wordorigins.org notes two Yiddish words with first citations from 1937 in the Oxford English Dictionary: bupkes, meaning nothing, and zaftig, also spelled zoftig, meaning big, plump, soft, or juicy. Bupkes may originally have referred to goat droppings, or perhaps beans. Zaftig comes from a word meaning juicy, and its tone can range from luscious to euphemistic or insulting, depending on context. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Yiddish “Bupkis” and “Zaftig” First Appear in English around 1937”
I was telling you about Dave Wilton’s wordorigins.org site.
Yes.
He’s going through the Oxford English Dictionary looking for words that have their first citations from 1937.
Well, two of them are Yiddish words.
Bupkis, meaning nothing.
I think it means goat droppings originally.
Yes, or beans.
And zaftig, meaning big, which I guess at the time wasn’t particularly derogatory because it comes from a word meaning juicy.
Right.
But now there’s some question about whether or not it’s nice or not.
Is it euphemistic for large or is it insulting for large?
It’s just plump and luscious.
Yeah.
You know, a ripe peach.
I don’t know.
Zaftig.
It’s Z-A-F-T-I-G or Z-O-F-T-I-G, depending.
That’s cool.
Zaftig.
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