Yiddish in American English Trivia Quiz

Answer: shmuck

"Shmuck" is a very bad word lots of Jewish adults remember being punished as children for using. Lenny Bruce got it past the censors, because he knew the censors would not be familiar with it; most people in the audience weren't familiar with it either, and assumed it was a mild epithet or it couldn't be used on stage at the time, and began repeating it polite conversation, so it took on the milder connotation it has in American English. Many Jews still cringe upon hearing it, though.

A greeting card company once had a prototype card that said "Sorry I was such a shmuck." A Jewish employee stopped it from being produced, because it would offend a lot of people.

"Shmuck" literally (in Yiddish) means penis.

"Shmo" and "shlemiel" both mean unlucky, sad sack types. Shmo has the implication of someone additionally being clueless about his condition, while a shlemiel suffers for it. "Shlep" is a verb that means drag.

Answer: nosh

"Nosh" comes to Yiddish from a German word that means to eat on the sly. You can have a quick nosh instead of a full meal, or sneak something small into the movie theater to nosh during the film, but if you plan to stuff yourself at a big meal, "fress" is the word you want. "Munch" and "morsel" are not Yiddish words.

Answer: bupkes

"Bupkes" literally means beans, but it can also mean animal droppings such as goat droppings, that resemble beans. Since droppings are worthless, and beans are very cheap, something that is described as "bupkes" has no value. Sometimes "bupkes" is simply translated as nothing, which is how it is often used in Yiddish.

A "brocha" is a blessing. "Null" comes from Latin. "Zilch" is of uncertain origin.

Answer: maven

While a rabbi is an expert in Judaism, the word has no connotative meaning. A person is never a baseball rabbi, or a crosswords rabbi, but someone who is an expert in one of those subjects, or any other subject, can be called a "maven". Someone might even be a Torah or Talmudic maven if the person is not a rabbi, but rather is an autodidact, or otherwise informally, but thoroughly, learned in the subject.

"Savant" is Latin; "buff" is Latin too, but comes to English in a more roundabout way, originally meaning literally to polish something, so a buff has well-polished skill or knowledge.

Answer: megillah

Having the whole minyan is good, because it means you have the ten people you need to say certain prayers, but the expression "the whole megillah" means everything, down to the last detail. It originally meant just getting the entire story, but now it can mean having every last thing you need for a project. "Meshugas" is crazy.

A megillah is a scroll with one of the scriptural stories written on it, such as the Book of Esther. There are certain holidays when the "whole megillah" must be read. Some people read only highlights, or stay in the synagogue just for the highlights, but the most pious, or the most detail-oriented and literal minded will insist on reading, or hearing, the whole megillah.

Answer: shmues (also often spelled shmooze)

"Shmues" originates with the Hebrew word for gossip, but there's more to "shmues" than just gossip. In fact, the Yiddish word could simply be translated converse.

The origin of "gab" is probably Dutch; "prattle" is German, but not the same dialect that contributed to Yiddish; "chat" is purely English.

Answer: True

"Schnauze" is the German word for nose: it is the source of the same word as the dog breed, and also the word that became "shnozz", with a short vowel, in Yiddish. Sometimes you hear "Shnozzle" used ironically since typically in Yiddish, adding "le" to the end of a word makes it diminutive.

Answer: tuchus

Sometimes American Jews shorten it to "tush". You might sit on your bobbe -- on her lap that is, if you are a child, but she's not a part of your body -- your bobbe is your grandmother.

"Doup" comes from many variants on Slavic words for the nether-regions; "buttocks" is Anglo-Saxon.

Answer: spiel

It especially an advertising pitch that is, or is designed to look, extemporaneous, so the salesman is engaging in a little play for your sake.

Shpilkes means pins, especially the kind you might sit on in an expression of anxiousness: "I've been on shpilkes all day." "Shtick" means to stick, and is related to plays or skits, in that it can mean a distinctive part of a routine -- it refers to the props that comics use, which were often sticks, or canes. Shmear is just "smear-shmear". It can be anything you put on a bagel, such as butter, cream cheese, pate, fish paste, or jelly, and it has worked its way into a lot of expression where Americans say things like grease his palm. You "shmear" a lot of people at the holidays, like the doorman, the postman, the maitre d'hotel at your favorite restaurant; when you get a haircut, you shmear, or tip, the barber, maybe more than usual if he did you a favor, like staying open late.

Answer: chutzpah

"Chutzpah": I find all the following words offered variously as synonyms: nerve, guts, daring, audacity, effrontery, gall, boldness, temerity, bravery, pluck, and grit. Whether this quality is good or bad is truly in the eyes of the beholder.

"Mishpocha" means family, "tsimmes" means simmer, or a side dish created by simmering carrots and other vegetables, usually in honey and oil with raisins. "Hubris" is a Greek word.