[Mendele] Mendele Volume 18.019

Victor Bers victor.bers at yale.edu
Fri Feb 20 15:09:26 EST 2009


Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
____________________________________________________

Contents of Vol. 18.019
February 18, 2009

1) ashlekh (Brigitte Brandes)
2) pitsaritsa (Larry Friedman)
3) greenhorn (Miriam Stein)
4) Luftmensch (Tom Putnam)
5) gelinkte terink (Stephen Berr)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  February 1, 2009
Subject: ashlekh

Ashlekh is a special kind of onion called in French "échalote." It is
derived from Latin "escalonia, from Ascalon (Ashkelon). So, the Yiddish
word comes also from Latin. In Polish onion is "cebula "or "cebulka," in
Yiddish "tsibele." In Russian the word is completely different.

Brigitte Brandes

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: January 31, 2009
Subject:

My aunt, who speaks a very good Yiddish, has asked me to survey the group
and see if anyone knows the expression "pitsaritsi." Her father, who was
from Odessa, used the expression as a derogatory description of a "very
skinny lady who thinks she's really something." Is anyone else familiar
with this, and does anyone know the derivation?

Ironically, I was sitting in a movie theatre yesterday with my sister and
her husband and telling them about our aunt's question. I couldn't quite
remember it and said it had something to do with pizza. At that point, a
lady sitting in front of us turned around and said, "You mean 'pitsaritsa'.
My father used to call me that." She was hardly skinny, but we all laughed,
and I said I would ask this group. Such is life in south-east Florida!

Any information would be appreciated.

Larry Friedman

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: February 14, 2009
Subject: greenhorn

What is the derivation of the word "greenhorn"? Our Yiddish club was
reading the Sholem Aleichem story, "Mir arbetn in shop," in which the word
is often used. The question came up of how the word began to be used. None
of us knew.

A sheynem dank,

Miriam Stein

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date:  February 2, 2009
Subject: Luftmensch

One of P.G. Wodehouse's favorite characters, Stanley Featherstonehaugh
Ukridge, was a luftmensch but not, obviously, so called in the stories. I
wouldn't have understood Ukridge so well without having come to know
Menakhem-Mendl. A difference between them is that Ukridge is often up to
mischief to obtain his dream; he may be less gullible than Menakhem-Mendl.

Most sincerely,
Tom Putnam

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: February 11, 2009
Subject: gelinkte terink

A friend of mine asked me if I knew or heard of the term "gelinkte terink."
He said this was something that his father would call him. As best as I
could, I have transcribed the words into Latin letters. I am sure that the
first word refers to someone who is left- handed, but I could not find
anything like "terink" in Uriel Weinreich's dictionary.

A sheynem dank,

Stephen Berr
______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 18.019

Please do not use the "reply" key when writing to Mendele. Instead, 
direct your mail as
follows:

Material for Mendele Personal Notices & Announcements, i.e. 
announcements of events,
commercial publications, etc., always in plain text (no HTML or the 
like) to:

   victor.bers at yale.edu (in the subject line write Mendele Personal)
 
Material for postings to Mendele Yiddish literature and language, i.e. 
inquiries and
comments of a non-commercial or publicity nature: 
 
    mendele at mailman.yale.edu 
 
IMPORTANT:  Please include your full name as you would like it to appear 
in your
posting.  No posting will appear without its author's name. 
Submissions to regular Mendele should not include personal email 
addresses, as
responses will be posted for all to read. 
 
In order to spare the shamosim time and effort, we request that 
contributors adhere, when
applicable, as closely as possible to standard English punctuation, 
grammar, etc. and to
the YIVO rules of transliteration into Latin letters. A guide to 
Romanization can be
found
at this site: http://www.yivoinstitute.org/about/index.php?tid=57&aid=275
 
All other messages should be sent to the shamosim at this address:
mendele at mailman.yale.edu 
 
Mendele on the web: http://shakti.trincoll.edu/~mendele/index.htm 
 
To join or leave the list: http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/mendele







More information about the Mendele mailing list