What is a pischer?

[Stuart Leichter]

In article <344BEA...@compu.net>, p...@compu.net wrote:

> No doubt this is simple. But... my wife and I are not able to find the
> meaning of the word "pischer". It was used in the movie Baby Boom and we
> just saw it on a sweat shirt for toddlers. Even in the magazine offering
> the sweat shirt the write up said "and any bubbe knows what a pischer
> is"
>
> We've checked Websters and all the search engines for the word but with
> no luck.
>
> Can anyone on this newsgroup help us.

Leo Rosten in _The Joys of Yiddish_ and _The Joys of Yinglish_--from which
this is excerpted--glosses "pisher (noun, masculine) .... From German:
_pissen_: 'to urinate'.

"(Vulgarism)

1. A bed-wetter.
2. A young, inexperienced person; a 'young squirt'.
3. An insignificant or inconsequential person; a 'nobody'.

"Literally, a _pisher_ is one who urinates, boy or girl; but that is a far
cry from popular usage. 'He's merely a _pisher_' means 'He's very young'
or 'He's still wet behind the ears'. (Excuse the misleading metaphor.)"

Netspeak's "newbie" would be a synonym: "Nu? So what do you expect from
such a newbie?"

I haven't seen "pischer" as a variant spelling, but "pihshr" is a variant
in Jacobs's _The Jewish Word Book_. Rosten tends to eschew the sch- in
favor of sh- in most Yiddish-to-English renderings.

--
Stuart Leichter