Results: The New Ten Best Yiddish Words You Might Not Know
Published on 08/24/2017
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1.
1.
Here are ten words, read carefully and choose just one, that you'd like to incorporate in your next conversation:
Dreml (DREH-ml): Nap (noun) Sample Sentence: "Classes today have worn me out — I need to cop a dreml before I do any homework."
4%
84 votes
Unterzakhn. (OON-ter-zakhn) Literally "under-things," unterzakhn refers to undergarments. Unterzakhn is also the title of a graphic novel by Leela Corman. "Pull up your britches; your unterzakhn are showing!"
4%
81 votes
Kashe-Bulbe (KAH-sheh BOOL-beh): Want to expand your culinary Yiddish beyond kreplach and kugel ? Kashe-Bulbe means mashed potatoes, and is more fun to say than its English equivalent. "My mom must put a pound of butter in her kashe-bulbe, but it's so good I don't care!"
3%
75 votes
Malokhe (mah-LOH-kheh): This is a word borrowed from Hebrew, and it means work. "Just one more hour of this malokhe and I get to head home!"
5%
111 votes
Nit azoy ay-ay-ay (NEET ah-ZOY aye-aye-aye; the "ay" should be pronounced like the pronoun "I"): This phrase means '"not that great." "The band usually puts on a great performance, but last night's show was nit azoy ay-ay-ay."
3%
60 votes
Ringlheft (RIN-gul-heft) This is hands-down my favorite word in Yiddish. It refers to a three-ring binder and is definitely an attention-grabber. "I often find myself wishing I still had my old Trapper Keeper ringlheft."
2%
45 votes
Veren zol fun dir a blintsa (VEHR-en zol fun DEER ah BLIN-tseh): Yelling this at someone who cuts you off is more entertaining than using more off-color language since you're telling the offender that they should turn into a blintz!
2%
36 votes
Zissele (ZISS-uh-leh) Use this term of endearment instead of the blander '"sweetie," "sugar" or similar English words. "Would you like the last cheese blintz, Zissele?"
6%
134 votes
Shtub-mensch (SHTOOB-mensh, with the "oo" pronounced as in "book"): The literal translation of shtub-mensch is room- or house-person, but is used to mean roommate. English already uses "mensch" to describe a good, decent person., so why not give it an upgrade? "Even though he's kind of cheap, my shtub-mensch is a real mensch."
1%
20 votes
Shushkeh (SHOOSH-keh, with the "oo" pronounced as in "book"): This Yiddish word for "whisper" literally sounds like what it means. "The museum was so quiet, you could easily hear the slightest shushkeh from two rooms away."
5%
118 votes
N/A
65%
1411 votes
2.
2.
My great, great grandparents, Abraham Newman and Sarah Cohen Newman lived in St. Louis and then in Illinois, circa late 1800s. All the US censuses state that Yiddish was the language spoken in their home. Do you have any family or friends, perhaps yourself that spoke/speak Yiddish?
Yes
10%
217 votes
No
72%
1567 votes
Undecided
18%
391 votes
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