Our little list is not the whole ‘megillah’, but it ain’t ‘bubkes’
Bubkes
English takes on new words all the time. We’ve been borrowing liberally from other language – French, Greek, and German to mention just a few – for centuries. More recently, in the last hundred years, we’ve added many Yiddish words in our melting pot.
What follows is a list of some of the more well-known words of Yiddish origin to have entered English. It should be noted that these are not direct English translations of Yiddish words; they are words from Yiddish that have been sufficiently naturalized in our language to be included in an English language dictionary.
Definition:
: the least amount; also : nothing
About the Word:
The Yiddish word bubkes (also spelled in both English and Yiddish as bupkes or bubkus) is thought to be short for the colorful kozebubkes, which means ‘goat droppings’ – something you may want to consider the next time you find yourself saying ‘I’ve got bubkes.’
Example:
“And I got bubkes for alimony and child support. Nice.” – Olivia Goldsmith, The First Wives Club, 2008
Glitch
Definition:
: a usually minor malfunction
About the Word:
It should be stated at the outset that the parentage of glitch is not assured, something we should not hold against so useful a word. Merriam-Webster states (as do many other dictionaries) that the word is ‘perhaps from Yiddish glitsh,’ a word that means ‘slippery place.’ The first known print use of the word is from 1940, when it was reported as being used in the slang of radio announcers, referring to an egregious mispronunciation.
Example:
“United Airlines Resumes Flights Delayed by Computer Glitch.” – New York Times (headline), 8 July 2015
Klutz
Definition:
: a person who often drops things, falls down, etc. : a clumsy person
About the Word:
The story of klutz is a classic immigrant’s tale. The word came to our language but a few generations ago, began its hardscrabble life as a non-standard lexical item, and through dint of hard work and having the good fortune of beginning and ending with two very funny letters, managed to make itself a widely accepted and useful member of our language. There does not appear to be any written evidence of klutz in English prior to 1959, when Carl Reiner explained the meaning of the word to the Los Angeles Times: “[a klutz is] a dancer who dances as good as he can, but instead of just applause he also gets laughter.” It comes from the Yiddish word klots, which means ‘wooden beam.’
Example:
“Incidentally, the kid used all our equipment, fiddling like the klutz he is with a brand-new Panavision camera, which now when I press the button makes a sound like when you turn slowly the wood handle on those tin party noisemakers Elsie calls groggers.” – Woody Allen, Mere Anarchy, 2007
Bagel
Definition:
: a firm doughnut-shaped roll traditionally made by boiling and then baking
About the Word:
The bagel, both the humblest and mightiest of all bread forms, is, unsurprisingly, of Yiddish origins. The word that names it comes from that language’s word beygl. It is widely speculated (at least by those who do such speculation) that the Yiddish word is descended from the Middle High German word böugel, which is from another German word for ring or bracelet.
Example:
“Among the most frequently heard complaints of New Yorkers who visit Israel is that ‘you can’t get a good bagel in Tel Aviv.'” – Ray Jones, Great American Stuff: A Celebration of People, Places, and Products that Make Us Happy to Live in America, 1997.
-nik
Definition:
: a person connected to an activity, an organization, a movement, etc.
About the Word:
“You’re always so persistent about things. You’re such a nudnik. Why do you ask me to eat shrimp? What the hell is so big about shrimp?” – Thomas J. Cottle, When the Music Stopped: Discovering My Mother, 2004
Example:
There are many different kinds of -niks, a handy word ending which comes from the Yiddish suffix of the same spelling, and denotes a person who is connected to a group or a cause. Among the more common words that utilize this are beatnik, neatnik, peacenik, nudnick, and the ever popular no-goodnik. Russian also has this suffix, and English has borrowed -nik words from Russian too, including refusenik and Raskolnik (a dissenter from the Russian Orthodox Church).
Futz
Definition:
: fool around
About the Word:
Futz is a word that has the sort of etymology that will make small children think that studying language is an enjoyable pursuit. It is thought to have come (no one is entirely certain) from a modification of the Yiddish phrase arumfartsn zikh, the literal translation of which is ‘to fart around.’
Example:
“But, as he got closer, I noticed he looked pretty sober, like there was more on his mind than just futzing around shooting the bull and getting in everybody’s way.” – Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion, 1964
Megillah
Definition:
: a long involved story or account
About the Word:
For a long time before megillah was the word that was used to refer to an overlong story or convoluted production its primary meaning was a considerably different one. The Megillah is typically read out loud from a scroll in course of certain Jewish holidays. At the beginning of the 20th century megillah began to be used in a figurative sense to refer to a long or complicated tale. It comes to English from the Yiddish word megile, which is itself from the Hebrew mĕgillāh, meaning ‘scroll.’
Example:
“Yesterday I was sore on the whole Megillah down here; to-day you couldn’t drive me away mit wild animals.” – New York Tribune, 25 Feb. 1914