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Saturday, February 19, 2011

Go Kakafanyom!

KA-kaf-an-yam: Jump in the lake! (command)

He said I have hairy lips? He can go kakafanyam.

Stop hocking my chienick! Go kakafanyom!

Posted by Izzy at 2:00 PM

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Labels: Yiddish Lexicon

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A lesson in Yiddish Expression

Yiddish words breathe. Sounds nutty, but when you pronounce the words and the expressions they form, you can actually feel its meaning. Words are spelled phonetically; if you might need the accent, it's capitalized.

YENtah:

A busy body, gossip monger, in an endearing way, an irritating way or both.

After giving a party, the host exlaimed, "How did you like that Bernie's hat? Oy. And Surrah. Is she good looking. (gasp.) How was he ever able to get someone as gorus as her? You know their daughter is at Yale.

The hostess replies, ""Benny, Stop; being ssuch a yentah!"

Hard to portray the sing-song, gestures and sighs of yentah-speak, that's what makes a yentah truly endearing, in an utterly annoying way.

Kenna Hura(informal): The danger from predicting a desired outcome (eg success, good weather) because the opposite outcome may unfold. This fine expression is based on the wise belief that you can control your fate, but you can also fall prey to it.

I entered my daughter into the Miss King County Beauty Contest. Next year she'll be Miss America, the year after, Miss Universe.

--Naturally, the girl lost.

Oy Vey, what a sad story. Utter what happened--a kenienah hura--and the depth of its consequences will roll off your tongue.

2. Oy Vey: Oh no! woe is me! Oh God! Sometimes light-hearted, sometimes opinionated.

He's still hasn't shaved and his feet smell. Oy vey!

See the rolled eyes, hear the sigh, feel the overall disgust, revel in the seemingly light pronouncement, "oy vey," that belies a judgment and a call to arms for daily bathing.

3. Plotz: so happy, proud, elated that you're going to drop down and faint; passing out from the wonder and beauty of someone's accomplishment.

My son just won the heavy weight champion of the world! I'm going to plotz!

Feel the wonder, the dizzy happiness, the sheer awe, the WOW in that term.

4. FuhTOOTzzled: in a whirlwind of angst that is so overwhelming that you can't focus. You can get fuhtootzzled from all sorts of things --how many things you have to do, having to get your daughter out of jail at 2:00 AM (NOT a true story, though it could happen to anyone, even you), your teens calling you a lunatic and then telling you to get out of their room (based on a true story).

I became fuhtootzzled when I arrived after the movie had started. I couldn't spot my friends in the dark, felt like a dork standing there staring at the audience while the movie was going on. To top it off, when I crept through the row to reach my friends, I tripped and landed on this guy; it was as if he was the chair. Naturally I was even more fuhtootzzled and couldn't pay attention to the first part of the movie.

I'm too fuhtootzzled to comment.

4.

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