[Mendele] Mendele Vol.24.004

Mon Dec 29 11:14:13 EST 2014

Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 24.004
December 29, 2014

1) You Know More Yiddish Than You Think (Bennett Muraskin)
2) Shamus (Leyer Gillig)
3) Ganef, Shamus and Schemozzle (Oron Joffe)
4) Schemozzle (David H. Spodick)
5) "Collar stay" etc. (Yonason Felendler)
6) "dizhdik" / "dishdik" (Peter Belenky)
7) "Fraye mine" (Rachel Mines)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 15
Subject: You Know More Yiddish Than You Think

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v1/url?u=http://jewishcurrents.org/you-know-more-yiddish-than-you-think-34215&k=dpQisR3avULHgiNaNeY%2Btg%3D%3D%0A&r=ubET9YI7QoMEm5q4oYb5pKSG0nQhDXxsupJay4H5Q8o%3D%0A&m=eKIFg8kcpD4OnRJpZsiyQSA0wW%2F9EqE75Uw4DRe3eaw%3D%0A&s=96b71a3652ff5cbcbe63e75ba5b89e22bbd3cf296c9b1050fd308cfd36d08a59

Bennett Muraskin

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 22
Subject: Shamus

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.003]

I know Jews like to take credit for everything, but to me it makes more
sense that Shamus (detective), which word first appears in the 1920's, is
derived from the common Irish name Seamus (pronounced the same), which
means James, and was applied to police officers, of whom a large percentage
were Irish immigrants or first-generation Irish-Americans.

Leyzer Gillig

[Moderator’s note: identical response received from Goldie Morgentaler]

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 23
Subject: Ganef, Shamus and Schemozzle

Regarding Amy Kaufman's question [24.003], a ganef in Yiddish is primarily
a thief but can also be used to indicate a rascal or a sly fellow. I don't
know if it has "always" carried the secondary meaning (the word does not
mean that in Hebrew), but it appears in that sense in Harkavy's dictionary
1925.

"Schemozzle", to the best of my knowledge, is not a word in Yiddish, but it
looks looks like a mispronunciation or mistransliteration of shlemazl, a
clumsy and unlucky person or a loser. This meaning is of course quite far
from a "free for all".

Finally, a shamus looks like a distortion of shames (from Hebrew Shamash),
a beadle or a sexton (or a similar role in other settings). However, in
Michael Chabon's "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" the word is used as to
mean a "peace maker" (gun) on the policemen's fictional lingo.

In other words, it looks like the author of the crossword-puzzle's
knowledge of Yiddish leaves a lot to be desired.

Oron Joffe

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 24
Subject: Schemozzle

[Reply to inquiry in Vol. 24.003]

"Schemozzle is Scots and English for "a muddle" "a complicated situation".
My Shorter Oxford Dictionary thinks it may be patterned on our
"shlimazel"--- but that's a person.

David H. Spodick*
  * now there's a Yiddish word for you!
     "drehen a spodik" = hacken a chainik"

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 23
Subject: "Collar stay" etc.

a) How would one say a collar stay in Yiddish?

b) How would one say shoe-taps (the ones that are nailed on the bottom so
as not to rub out the heel from walking)?

c) How would one say a nebulizer?

d) How would one say a drill bit?

I understand that many of these words weren't used in the shtetlekh, but
for those words, what do some have to suggest? I'll take ideas and I'll
choose for myself. Thanks!

Y. Felendler

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 23
Subject: "dizhdik" / "dishdik"

[See 24.002-3]

Since no one has claimed immediate familiarity with the usage, I would
suggest another etymology:  From Russian  dozhd’ (rain), combined with the
Yiddish/German adjectival ending –ig or –ik.

Peter Belenky
Washington, DC

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: December 23
Subject: "Fraye mine"

I'm wondering if anyone can help me with an idiom, "fraye mine," that I,
and others I've asked so far, are not familiar with.

The context is a short story in which the father is ill and the children
are supposed to keep out of his way. The previous sentence describes how
difficult life is in the home when the father is ill. The sentence in
question is: "Mir kinder hobn nisht getort keyn fraye mine bavayzn, ver
redt shoyn fun a shtif ton," which I've tentatively translated as "We kids
weren't even allowed to make faces, let alone play pranks." Two alternative
translations, "We children did not dare express ourselves" and "We kids
weren't even allowed to show our faces" have also been suggested to me.

So far, then, I have three possibilities for "fraye mine": make faces; show
our faces; express ourselves.

Any other ideas?

BTW, this is my first posting, as I'm a "new" translator - I'm looking
forward to joining the discussions!

Thanks!
Rachel Mines

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 24.004

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