Make your bubbe proud! 16 Yiddish words to drop over dinner


Crack open a Yiddish dictionary, and you might just be surprised that a lot of the word you use on the regular originated in the Jewish culture. Take a peek at a dozen-plus of our favorite words and see exactly how to use ‘em in a sentence. Then impress the folks by oh-so casually dropping them at dinner. But uh, do everyone a favor and don’t be a nudnik about it. Nobody likes a pest.

Kvetch – “Stop kvetching, Katie. We’ll stop by Auntie Annie’s as soon as we’re done at Forever 21.”

Mentsh – “Ryan Gosling is such a mentsh. Did you hear about how he helped that granny with her groceries?”

Mishegas – “Did you hear about what happened at Walmart on Black Friday? Total mishegas.”

Schmaltzy – “Ugh, did you see Veronica’s top? It’s so schmaltzy with all those sequins and things.”

Yenta – “OK, time for Ms. Kripke to stop playing yenta. I don’t need a date this weekend.”

Spiel – “My mom gave me this whole spiel about getting into the holiday spirit, but honestly, it’s not even Thanksgiving. Put. Rudolph. Away.”

Tchotchke – “Mom, tell Nick to stop playing with my 1D tchotchkes! He’s wrecking them.”

Chutzpah – “Get a load of his chutzpah! He totally cut in line to grab the last brownie.”

Nosh – “I need to nosh before seventh period or everyone is gonna hear my stomach growling.”

Shlep – “Oy vey! I am so sick of shleping my backpack everywhere I go.”

Glitch – “Yeah, there’s a glitch in this whole Secret Santa process. I just got myself. For the third time.”

Klutz – “Josh, you klutz! You totally just spilled punch on my dress!”

Shtick – “I am getting so tired of Zooey’s hipster girl shtick. Enough already!”

Maven – “Yeah, Molly’s a total mascara maven. She stuck the wand in her eye on the bus this morning—again.”

Schmooze – “I want to be popular just as much as anyone else, but I’m not gonna schmooze my way to the top.”

Tuches – “Have you seen Niall’s tuches (sigh, or “tush”) in those jeans? Hot!”

Did you try any of these? Share in the comments below!  

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by GL | 2/1/2016
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