Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 44 July 23, 1992 1) Pupik/pipik (Blumke Steinberg) 2) Yiddish among the low-lives (Gerald M. Prince) 3) Meshorer (Bob Werman) 4) Meshorer (Rick Turkel) 5) Meshorer (Bob Hoberman) 6) Meshorer (Paul Weichsel) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 12:38:06 EDT From: "Blossom S. Kirschenbaum (Blumke Steinberg)" Subject: RE: Pupik/pipik Re: Elliot Gertel's question, in my family "pupik" or "pipik" referred to the bellybutton and environs, especially of a baby in diapers, who in moments of delight and affection would be kissed "afn pupik." It was a term of endearment, for babies. For adults it could be condescending, as when a shirt didn't quite cover the abdomen: "Men zeyt zeyn pupik." The word was also used for a chicken-gizzard. Novelist Marguerite Dorian, born in Bucharest, concurs with these usages that prevailed among both Litvak and Galitsiane neighbors in The Bronx. Blumke Steinberg 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 12:53 EDT From: GMP@PSUVM.PSU.EDU Subject: Is there Yiddish among thieves? The recent talk about sex sets off nostalgia. Those of us who were raised in a semi-Yiddish environment, especially one where Yiddish was a secret language used only to keep the kids from finding out what was going on, spawned a gutter argot we used for our own purposes, mostly to talk about forbidden subjects. Bob Werman, mentioning trennen, suggests a chant of ours, which I recall as: Ai ai ai ai trennen ist mein leben Das ist vei der Gott a schmuck gegeben. The grammar, of course, could not meet the standards of the linguists in this group, but we were all masters for what later became our storehouse of four letter words. We all knew jokes with Yiddish punch lines, which we would share with glee. Those of us who were connected with goniffs (as I was up to about the age of 12, a veritable Billy Bathgate running bag for the remnants of the Capone organization in Cleveland), quickly learned derogations. One preferred to be summoned as, "hey, schmuck" as opposed to "putzeleh." The names Mushy Wexler, Arnold Rothstein, and Sander Birns may mean nothing today, but they were giants in their day and Wexler and Rothstein were pioneers when Nevada legalized gambling. My connected, through Uncle Sid, who owned the Miami Deli was my Yivo. No Arbeiterring for this kid. I wonder if there are others for whom this discussion trigger this strangely pleasant nostalgia for a time when there was honor among thieves and Eliot Ness was impotent. Gerald M. Phillips 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 21:08 +0300 From: RWERMAN%HUJIVMS.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu Subject: RE: Meshorer David Sherman asks: Meshorer? What does this mean (well, some of that was clear from the rest of the article), and what's its derivation? ************** Meshorer, from shir, a poet or a SINGER; King David - whom scholars are trying to turn [Has v'shalom!] into a myth [Doesn't he have enough trouble being a Jew?] was poet and probably a singer as well [the rolls may not have been separate; see balladeer in European traditions]. The meshorer was also one of the classes of Levi'im whose job was to sing the psalms. The gemora - arguing for separation of jobs [which modern women find so difficult to accept] - says that the singing Levi who guards [sho'er, another levitical function] for his brother should be put to death. __Bob Werman rwerman@hujivms.bitnet rwerman@vms.huji.ac.il 4)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 14:48:11 EDT From: rmt51@cas.org Subject: meshorer A meshorer is a poet, singer or bard. It's a Hebrew word from the same root as shir (poem, song). Rick Turkel (rmt51@cas.org) (rmt51@cas.bitnet) 5)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 22 Jul 1992 16:21:00 -0400 (EDT) From: Robert D Hoberman Subject: Meshorer David Sherman asked for the derivation of "meshorer". It is ultimately from the Hebrew word shir 'song, poem'. The basic Hebrew verb derived from shir and meaning 'to sing' is (past and present tense) shar (Ashkenazic pronunciation shor), infinitive lashir/loshir. But there is a less common verb derived from the same root (for aficionados of Hebrew grammar, it's in the demi-binyan "polel", an equivalent of pi'el for middle-weak verbs). The past tense is shorer, infinitive leshorer; MESHORER is the present tense and the active participle: 'one who sings or composes poetry'. In modern Hebrew it's become limited to 'poet', not 'singer', but that's beside the point. Since the "o" in this word is khoylem, which usually corresponds, at least in open syllables, to standard Yiddish /oy/, the Yiddish word ought to be "meshoyrer". And that's just how Weinreich's dictionary gives it, under the spelling mem-shin-vov-reysh-reysh. Just before Meshiakh. Defined as "choirboy in a synagogue; Hebrew poet". Bob Hoberman rhoberman@sbccmail.bitnet, rhoberman@ccmail.sunysb.edu 6)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 1992 21:16:57 -0500 From: Paul Weichsel Subject: RE: Meshorer David Sherman asks for the meaning and derivation of "meshorer". In the sense in which I used it I intended "choirboy", one of the translations given in Weinreich's dictionary. It is, in fact, a modern hebrew word meaning specifically, a member of a cantor's choir. Its earlier menaing in hebrew is a composer of litergical poetry and song. Paul Weichsel ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.23 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.