Furshlugeneh (phonetic)
Dena Jo
Can anyone confirm that this is a real Yiddish word, or did Mad
Magazine just make it up?
--
Dena Jo
(Email: Replace TPUBGTH with denajo2)
Martin Ambuhl
> I cannot find this word in my Joys of Yiddish.
>
> Can anyone confirm that this is a real Yiddish word, or did Mad
> Magazine just make it up?
>
I don't know this as a Yiddish word.
For discussions about Mad Magazine and its noises used as words, you
could go to
http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/cgi/Ultimate.cgi?action=intro&category=5&Bypa
http://tinyurl.com/awk1
Ray Heindl
> I cannot find this word in my Joys of Yiddish.
>
> Can anyone confirm that this is a real Yiddish word, or did Mad
> Magazine just make it up?
I thought Mad spelled it "furshlugginer".
From <http://www.langston.com/Fun_People/1995/1995BNV.html>:
"Furshlugginer", accent on shlug, is Yiddish for the adjective
"lowdown".
--
Ray Heindl
(remove the X to reply)
Skitt
> I cannot find this word in my Joys of Yiddish.
>
> Can anyone confirm that this is a real Yiddish word, or did Mad
> Magazine just make it up?
Is it based on the German "verschlagener" (devious, disingenuous, shifty)?
--
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://www.geocities.com/opus731/
I speak English well -- I learn it from a book!
-- Manuel (Fawlty Towers)
Gary G. Taylor
> I cannot find this word in my Joys of Yiddish.
>
> Can anyone confirm that this is a real Yiddish word, or did Mad
> Magazine just make it up?
Rey Aman may correct me on this, but my understanding is that it's a regular
German word, meaning (roughly) "beat up." And I seem to recall that MAD
spells it "furshlugginer."
--
Gary G. Taylor * Rialto, CA
http://geetee dot cdfound dot org / gary at cdfound.org
"The two most common things in the Universe are
hydrogen and stupidity." --Harlan Ellison
holger freese
"Gary G. Taylor" schrieb:>
> Rey Aman may correct me on this, but my understanding is that it's a
regular
> German word, meaning (roughly) "beat up." And I seem to recall that MAD
> spells it "furshlugginer."
All right, here's word from a German native speaker: "verschlagen" as an
adjective means "deceitful, dishonest", "verschlagener Typ" = "shifty
character". As a verb it has several meanings, one of them in Southern
dialects is indeed a synonym for "verprügeln, verhauen, verdreschen", i.e.
"beat (s.o.) up", but the meaning in MAD's expression must be "deceitful
one" due to the suffix -er.
Greetings,
Ho
Dena Jo
GrapeApe
had to look up other sources.
Verklempt, I believe, is missing from that book. I think it means "on
tenterhooks", which might make its usage not true to context in SNL's Cawfee
Tawk, where its anticipatory sense was not obvious. "You keep using that word,
but I don't think you know what it means."
Mike Myers, as the woman on SNLs Cawfee Tawk sketch, used to also use a word
that sounded somewhat like "skennectikazoit". I think he made this up, but if
any one can point to a yiddish word it could be, and the meaning thereof, I
would be grateful.
Skitt
> Not all yiddish is joyful so you might not find it in Joy of Yiddish.
> I have had to look up other sources.
>
> Verklempt, I believe, is missing from that book. I think it means "on
> tenterhooks", which might make its usage not true to context in SNL's
> Cawfee Tawk, where its anticipatory sense was not obvious. "You keep
> using that word, but I don't think you know what it means."
It does *not* mean "on tenterhooks".
Verklempt - Extremely emotional. On the verge of tears. (See "Farklempt")
Farklempt - Too emotional to talk. Ready to cry. (See "Verklempt)
Ref.: http://www.pass.to/glossary/gloz1.htm#letf
One might say that it is similar to "all choked up".
> Mike Myers, as the woman on SNLs Cawfee Tawk sketch, used to also use
> a word that sounded somewhat like "skennectikazoit". I think he made
> this up, but if any one can point to a yiddish word it could be, and
> the meaning thereof, I would be grateful.
I don't recall that one.
R F
> Mike Myers, as the woman on SNLs Cawfee Tawk sketch, used to also use a word
> that sounded somewhat like "skennectikazoit". I think he made this up, but if
> any one can point to a yiddish word it could be, and the meaning thereof, I
> would be grateful.
I think it was something like "connectagazoint", and I do not believe
he made it up; I'm dead sure I've heard it a number of times before.
As Linda Richman, Myers used "connectagazoint" in explaining why
she (Richman) was continuing to fill in for Pawl Bawldwin, who, as you
may recall, was the original host of _Coffee Talk_ (though it was
titled _New York Talk_).
I'm not certain it's really Yiddish, though.
Jonathan G. Ballard
"Skitt" <ski...@attbi.com> wrote:
> > Mike Myers, as the woman on SNLs Cawfee Tawk sketch, used to also use
> > a word that sounded somewhat like "skennectikazoit". I think he made
> > this up, but if any one can point to a yiddish word it could be, and
> > the meaning thereof, I would be grateful.
>
> I don't recall that one.
IIRC, the phrase he used was something like, "I got some "spielkus"
/Spilk@s/ in my "ge-nectig-uh-zoig" /g@ nEktig @zoIg/.
Of course, I have no idea what it means.
Jon
GrapeApe
> > a word that sounded somewhat like "skennectikazoit". I think he made
> > this up, but if any one can point to a yiddish word it could be, and
> > the meaning thereof, I would be grateful.
>
> I don't recall that one.
IIRC, the phrase he used was something like, "I got some "spielkus"
/Spilk@s/ in my "ge-nectig-uh-zoig" /g@ nEktig @zoIg/.
Of course, I have no idea what it means. >><BR><BR>
I think I found Spilkes (sp?) the same time I found verklempt, again,
remarkable for their absence from Joy of Yiddish or the other books I've seen
he (Yosten?) did of the same ilk.
I think I remember spilkes as being something like goosebumps.
Verklempt meant the same as the idiom 'on tenterhooks'
and we still haven't found genectkguhzoig, or whatever it is, if it exists.
Spelling variations as they naturally occur traveling over from the germanic
tongue don't help matters much. Farklempt, verklempt, what difference?
Furshlugginner and Potrezebie were actually from the mind of Harvey Kurtzman,
who got the words from his old neighborhood perhaps. They stayed at Mad
magazine after he left.
Dena Jo
> IIRC, the phrase he used was something like, "I got some "spielkus"
That sentence doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Spielkes is ants in
your pants. Someone who's so nervous that he can't sit still has
spielkes.
Laura F Spira
>
> On 07 May 2003, Jonathan G. Ballard posted thus:
>
> > IIRC, the phrase he used was something like, "I got some "spielkus"
>
> That sentence doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Spielkes is ants in
> your pants. Someone who's so nervous that he can't sit still has
> spielkes.
>
>
Pins, literally, aren't they? Where's Rey? He's usually the authority on
Yiddish.
--
Laura
(emulate St. George for email)
Laura F Spira
>
> On 07 May 2003, Jonathan G. Ballard posted thus:
>
> > IIRC, the phrase he used was something like, "I got some "spielkus"
>
> That sentence doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Spielkes is ants in
> your pants. Someone who's so nervous that he can't sit still has
> spielkes.
>
>
Pins, literally, aren't they? The expression in our family is to be "on
spilkes", rather than have them. A friend of my grandfather was known as
"Mr Spilkekop" because he had an unusually small head.
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
Jonathan G. Ballard wrote:
[...]
> IIRC, the phrase he used was something like, "I got some "spielkus"
> /Spilk@s/ in my "ge-nectig-uh-zoig" /g@ nEktig @zoIg/.
>
> Of course, I have no idea what it means.
Yiddish "shpilke" (singular) means "pin." Plural "shpilkes" literally
means "pins" and figuratively "jitters" (as in "to be on pins and
needles," i.e., to be in a nervous or jumpy state of tense
anticipation).
"ge-nectig-uh-zoig" /g@ nEktig @zoIg/: I haven't dug around to verify
my guess that it means "pajamas" or "night-gown" (see below). "I got
some pins in my pajamas" essentially means the same as Dena Jo's
suggested idiom, "I have ants in my pants."
--------------------------------------------
Dena Jo wrote:
> That sentence doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Spielkes is ants in
> your pants. Someone who's so nervous that he can't sit still has
> spielkes.
--------------------------------------------
Back to "ge-nectig-uh-zoig," which I would spell in Yiddish as
"genekhtige tsayk," and why I think it means 'pajamas.' As it sounds
neither Hebrew-Aramaic nor Slavic, it has to be from Middle High
German. There are Modern German words that sound like them:
"genächtigen" and "Zeug." The first word contains "Nacht" (night) and
means "to spend the night, to sleep"; the second word has many
meanings, especially "things, stuff." So "genekhtige tsayk" means
roughly "sleeping things, things for the night," i.e., "pajamas,
night-gown, night-shirt." Whether this Yiddish term exists in some
dialect I'll leave for the experts.
--------------------------------------------
Laura wrote:
> Pins, literally, aren't they? The expression in our family is to be
> "on spilkes", rather than have them. A friend of my grandfather was
> known as "Mr Spilkekop" because he had an unusually small head.
Yinglish "spilkekop" is surely a verbatim translation of English
"pinhead," i.e., it's not a genuine Yiddish term understood in Eastern
Europe.
> Where's Rey? He's usually the authority on Yiddish.
A dank aykh, but the real Yiddish authorities are Aaron and Avi. I
just do the basics, and they correct and polish if I screw up.
--
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
Martin Ambuhl
> I think I found Spilkes (sp?) the same time I found verklempt, again,
> remarkable for their absence from Joy of Yiddish or the other books I've seen
> he (Yosten?) did of the same ilk.
>
> I think I remember spilkes as being something like goosebumps.
> Verklempt meant the same as the idiom 'on tenterhooks'
My trusty old Britannica edition of the 7-languages dictionary gives
shpilke, <f.> (SHPEEL-keh) pin (sewing accessory)
We have similar expressions in English. For example, "pins and needles"
are "A tingling sensation felt in a part of the body numbed from lack of
circulation." (AHD4)
Ross Howard
>Not all yiddish is joyful so you might not find it in Joy of Yiddish. I have
>had to look up other sources.
I think if you do a Google on "Aman" and "Joy of Yiddish" you'll find
several clear indications posted here in the past that old Leo is to
Yiddish much as Michael Moore is to American politics -- heart in the
right place but scholarship not exactly on the top shelf.
Ross Howard
--------------------
(Kick ass for e-mail)
Dena Jo
> The expression in our family is to be "on spilkes", rather than have
them.
A pondian Yiddish difference!
Evan Kirshenbaum
> GrapeApe wrote:
>
> > I think I found Spilkes (sp?) the same time I found verklempt,
> >again, remarkable for their absence from Joy of Yiddish or the
> >other books I've seen he (Yosten?) did of the same ilk. I think I
> >remember spilkes as being something like goosebumps.
>
> My trusty old Britannica edition of the 7-languages dictionary gives
> shpilke, <f.> (SHPEEL-keh) pin (sewing accessory)
> We have similar expressions in English. For example, "pins and
> needles" are "A tingling sensation felt in a part of the body numbed
> from lack of circulation." (AHD4)
But "shipilkes" (always plural in my experience) isn't that. It's an
inability to sit still, to just relax and do nothing, or to stay in
one place for an extended period of time. (Characterized respectively
by fidgeting, by feeling the urge to take a walk or just "do
something", and by feeling the urge to go on a trip.) "Restless"
probably comes closest to covering it in English. It's treated like a
disease--"So-and-so's got the shpilkes".
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |If a bus station is where a bus
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |stops, and a train station is where
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |a train stops, what does that say
|about a workstation?
kirsh...@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
tomca...@yanospamhoo.com
> Verklempt, I believe, is missing from that book. I think it means "on
> tenterhooks", which might make its usage not true to context in SNL's Cawfee
> Tawk, where its anticipatory sense was not obvious. "You keep using that
> word, but I don't think you know what it means."
To tenters still use tenterhooks?
Aaron J. Dinkin
> Laura wrote:
>
>> Where's Rey? He's usually the authority on Yiddish.
>
> A dank aykh, but the real Yiddish authorities are Aaron and Avi. I
> just do the basics, and they correct and polish if I screw up.
You're very kind, but all I've got is a copy of Weinreich's dictionary and
four or five college semesters of Yiddish under my belt. I'm lucky if I
can get through a couple pages of a story in _Pakn-Treger_ without peeking
at the translation.
Next year, maybe....
-Aaron J. Dinkin
Dr. Whom
GrapeApe
to have scrolled off my server, so I ask...
Was the original question one of whether Flushshluginner was supposed to rhyme
with meshugenah, In that rhyming -schmiming fashion?