Well, while we wait for our resident Yiddish expert to comment, I’ll share a couple definitions I’ve looked up in the meantime. Most of these should be familiar to American English-speakers, anyway.
Dybbuk—A malicious possessing spirit, in Kabbalah and Jewish folklore (from wikipedia)
Emes—Truth, correct
Ganef—Thief
Kibbitzer— The term kibbitzer (and thus the verb to kibbitz) comes from the chess cafes of central Europe at the start of the century. A kibbitzer did not play chess, but watched other people playing, and possibly made comments on their play. (http://www.eisu2.bham.ac.uk/johnstf/kib.htm)
Latke–Potato pancake, traditionally served at Hanukkah, used here as slang for a rookie cop
Patzer—I gather that is actually chess slang! I didn’t know there was such a thing. It’s also Yiddish for “blunderer” and used to mean “poor player.”
Papiros—Cigarette
Pisher—Child, humorous (“little pisser”)
Schlemiel- inept bungler, someone who is easily victimized
Shammes- assistant to a rabbi, used in the book to describe detectives
Sholem—Peace/harmony or “Hello,” used to describe the guns the detectives carry. Clever! I think there’s a famous gun called a Peacemaker. I just looked it up, it’s a Colt .45
Shoyfar – brand name of the cellphones the characters use, from “shofar,” the ram's horn blown on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Shtarker—Strong arm
Shtetl—Small town or village
Shul–School
Tohubohu–I don’t think this is Yiddish, but it’s in the book, and here’s the definition: Chaos; confusion (from www.thefreedictionary.com)
Yid- Male Jew
Definitions mainly from http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/ , more to come!
Oh, and i forgot! Zamenhof was the name of the guy who invented Esperanto, if you were a little thrown at the beginning of the book, as i was, by "elevatoro," etc. "For Zamenhof this language wasn't merely a communication tool, but a means of spreading his ideas on the peaceful coexistence of different peoples and cultures. Among the many works he translated into Esperanto is the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament." More on him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._L._Zamenhof–a very interesting story, and sad, too: all three of his children died in the Holocaust.
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8 comments:
Holy cow, this is super helpful and awesome!
Bonus 1000 literary cred points to Megan!
Everyone should feel free to add any other words they come across. I've only scanned the first hundred pages or so for them.
Mazel Tov! That means congratulations on making this glossary. Literally "good luck."
A shammes is kind of a deacon in a synagogue. Sort of the caretaker; the guy who makes sure all the ceremonial lights are lit and such.
Momzer: bastard.
Cocked: Literally, shitted. Usually used in conjunction with "up."
Tzadik: a righteous person, do-gooder, etc.
Bonus translation: In Yiddish, "go shit in the ocean" is "gay kocken offen yom."
Nat, Why is "Go shit in the ocean" an insult? I don't get it.
This is hilarious. I always thought 'cocked up' was British!
Hi,
I thought Zamenhof might be a play on words since zamen is semen and home--I thought it had something to do with "spreading the seed" or increasing the Yiddish population?
I am not a member of your club, but I am reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union at the moment and compiling a sort of glossary for my site which is dedicated to links and lists that can be helpful to translators English / Dutch (http://www.ochrid.dds.nl/pages/Jiddisch.htm)
While doing some research on the subject I came across your very nice start of a glossary and wondered whether there is more now, as promised?
I am not a member of your club, but I am reading The Yiddish Policemen's Union at the moment and compiling a sort of glossary for my site which is dedicated to links and lists that can be helpful to translators English / Dutch de Taalvlinder
While doing some research on the subject I came across your very nice start of a glossary and wondered whether there is more now, as promised?
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