“Verklempt” Comes from Yiddish “Farklempt” for Being Seized Up with Emotion

Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mary Koppelman calling from Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin.

Beautiful little town, you must visit it.

Oh, welcome.

Good. I called to ask about the word verklempt.

And I’ll spell it as best as I know, V-E-R-K-L-E-M-P-T, verklempt.

Maybe the K is a C instead, I’m not sure.

And many years ago on Saturday Night Live, I watched one of their skits.

And one of the gentlemen that was on the show at that time was very emotional about something and began crying.

And they said, oh, you’re all verklempt.

And so I’ve begun using that word with my children and their children because I often get happy tears.

Like at Christmas when I get a special gift or something, then I get happy tears.

And so now they all use the word verklempt.

Grandma, you’re all verklempt.

So I’m wondering what the origin of that word is.

Oh, Mary, that’s so wonderful.

You’re using a Yiddishism.

Yeah.

Oh, awesome.

Yes, indeed.

It comes from a Yiddish term, farklempt.

Yeah, the clipped part has to do with like seizing up or catching just kind of what you’re describing, you know, when you’re so emotional that you’re just, you can barely even talk.

Yep, that’s me.

Yeah, and the far or the ver in that Yiddish term means it’s kind of an intensifier.

So it’s even more clenched up.

I see. Okay.

This is a famous skit that you saw that was done multiple times in multiple variations with Mike Myers.

Right.

Yes, I thought it was Mike Myers.

Playing a character called Linda Richmond.

And this is a word that he reintroduced into mainstream American English and made far more popular.

It may be one of the most successful Yiddish terms of the last 50 years.

Just because of that show.

Well, my family hadn’t heard it, apparently.

Well, are they all really young?

Are they all like in their 20s?

Because maybe they never saw it.

Well, my children are almost each 50 years old, and they hadn’t heard it either.

So I don’t know.

Maybe they don’t watch Saturday Night anymore.

Well, it hasn’t been on in a while, but it was first on in 1991.

So we’re talking over 25 years ago, this started being said on national television.

You can see that on YouTube.

Yeah.

Okay.

Well, it really stuck with me, and you said it was in 1991.

Yeah, through 94 with, I think, one or two.

He came back to the show after he was no longer a regular player and guest host.

Well, thank you so much.

I will make sure and tell them about it.

Okay, cool.

Thank you, Mary.

Thanks, Mary.

Bye now.

Bye-bye.

So the spelling originally in English was verklempt, F-A-R-K-L-E-M-T.

But today, most people spell it V-E-R-K-L-E-M-P-T.

And there are a lot of those Yiddishisms that start with F-A-R, like for mished, you know, which is sort of just, what, messed up, confused.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, I’m so for mished, I’m so verklempt.

And if you want to find this on YouTube, just look for Coffee Talk with Linda Richman, starring Mike Myers, and you will find it if you’re under 30 and maybe never saw it.

Yeah, yeah.

You’ll also find the phrase like butter.

Call us with your language questions.

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