Everybody Speaks a Little Yiddish Quiz

Answer: Bagel

The correct answer is bagel (pronounced BAY-g'l). Bagels have become a breakfast staple in North America, and they're perfect with cream cheese. The word 'bagel' is derived (as are a great many Yiddish words) from low German. Bagel comes from beugel, the German word for a round loaf of bread. According to Leo Rosten, and I quote, "The first printed mention of bagels...is to be found in the Community Regulations of Krakow, Poland, for the year 1610 - which stated that bagels would be given to any woman in childbirth." An old Yiddish saying runs, "Er ligt in drerd und bakt bagel", which literally means "He lies in the ground and bakes bagels." Colloquially, it means "He's not doing very well."

Challa is a braided loaf of white bread, glazed with egg white, and it is a Sabbath and holiday delicacy. Blintzes are pancakes, rolled around a filling, usually cottage cheese, and Latkes are delicious (and in my case habit-forming), crisp potato pancakes which were originally served only at Chanukah but now are eaten as often as one can get one's hands on them!

Answer: Lox

Lobster Thermidor or Crab Mayonnaise? You're kidding, right? Kosher law forbids shellfish. Same goes for a Reuben, because it is made with both meat and cheese and it is forbidden to consume meat and dairy products in the same dish. That leaves lox (from the German 'lachs' meaning 'salmon'). Lox (rhymes with fox) is thinly sliced smoked salmon, usually served on a plain or toasted bagel thickly spread with cream cheese.

It is to die for!

Answer: Mavin

If you're cognisant you're aware, if you're canny, you're pretty smart (especially in Scotland), and if you're a connoisseur you are the French-also-absorbed-into-English equivalent of the Yiddish mavin (sometimes spelled maven), pronounced MAY-vin, to rhyme with raven.

Answer: Congratulations!

While Mazel (pronounced mozzle) Tov (pronounced Tuv or Tuff) literally means "Good luck!"it is never used literally. As Leo Rosten puts it, "Don't "mazel tov" a man going into hospital; say "mazel tov" when he comes out."

Answer: Complimented

Mensh (rhymes with bench) is a notable compliment in Yiddish. It means "an upright, honourable, decent person". It is derived from the German 'mensch'. meaning 'person'.

Answer: He's a clumsy clod

Klutz is a German word meaning a block of wood, a heavy person, or a giant. In Yiddish it is used to describe someone who is a clumsy, slow-witted graceless person, an inept blockhead, or a congenital bungler.

Answer: Having a heart-to-heart talk

Shmooz (also spelled shmooze and shmoos) derives from the Hebrew 'shmuos' which originally meant 'things heard', but has, over time, come to mean 'rumours' or 'idle talk'. In Yiddish, shmooz is both a verb and a noun, and while it originally meant a chat, a gossipy exchange, a friendly conversation, in general North American use it has also come to mean mixing and mingling, working the room, talking to the right people who can give your career a boost.

Answer: Stagehands

In the theatre, stagehands are often referred to as shleppers because they pull, push, drag sets into place, dress the stage between acts, and generally move stuff around. A shlepper, in short, is one who shleps, and the Yiddish word 'shlep' means to drag or pull and is derived from the German 'schleppen' which means'to drag'.

It can also mean to carry, as in "I had to shlep all the groceries home on the 'bus because the car is in the shop." Shlep and shlepper can also be derogatory terms, so be careful how you use them.

Answer: You're not Jewish

Shikseh is from the Hebrew 'sheques', meaning 'blemish'. Traditionally, a Jewish man does not marry outside his faith because Judaism is a matrilineal religion - one is a Jew only if one's mother is Jewish - so intermarriage between Jews and Gentiles was actively discouraged.

As religiosity is overtaken by secularism, it is rare these days to hear a young woman referred to as a shikseh. An Orthodox Jewish woman who does not keep a kosher household, who is not observant, may be referred to as a shikseh by her community.

Answer: It's excessively sentimental

The Yiddish 'shmaltz' comes from the German 'schmalz', which means'fat', 'drippings','grease'. Anything that's full of shmalz is too sugary, too maudlin, too mawkish, too banal, too corny, too mushy, or is just plain over-the-top-emotional. Avoid shmalz!