______________________________________________________
Contents of Vol. 3.268
March 8, 1994

1) Two words (Leigh Lisker)
2) Ekelt (Paul Bakan)
3) Eklen (Shleyme Axelrod)
4) Ekelt (Arre Komar)
5) Tumtum (Meylekh Viswanath)
6) White Challa (Hal Berman)

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Mar  4 11:47:05 1994
From: llisker@babel.ling.upenn.edu (Leigh Lisker)
Subject: two words

On kabak and eklet, if we allow dictionary use as well internalized
lexicon, Wheeler's Oxford Rus-Eng dictionary tell us that kabak
'tavern' has a diminutive kabachok, and that there is also kabachok
' vegetable marrow.' A semantic connection seems unlikely, but who
knows? As for eklet, in Gentile Yiddish a.k.a. German, der Ekel
"disgust, aversion'loathing' and the verb ekeln 'disgust, sicken'
are common forms.  Is there a problem here?

Leigh Lisker

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Mar  4 12:24:51 1994
From: <bakan@sfu.ca>
Subject: ekelt

The words 'ekel', 'ekelt', ekelhaftig etc. come fro the German 'der
ekel' which means disgust.  That which is disgusting as a dirty
restaurant can result in 'es ekelt mir'.

Paul Bakan

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Mar  4 13:30:19 1994
From: Seymour Axelrod <PTYAXEL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
Subject: eklen

Dan Kirschner, probably a neuroscientist (?), asks about "eklet",
perhaps better transcribed as "eklt".  Weinreich's Y-E, E-Y
dictionary gives "eklen", meaning "disgust, sicken".  So when Dan's
mother says "es eklt mir", she is indeed likely to walk out of the
restaurant.  Weinreich marks the word as "of doubtful admissibility
in the standard language", but there are those who think that he's
often unnecessarily prescriptive--even snooty.

--Shleyme Axelrod

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Mar  4 20:37:17 1994
From: "Dr. Arthur Komar" <komar@yu1.yu.edu>
Subject: ekelt

Ekelt is a word my parents frequently used in their Yiddish
conversations. However, as I am sure other Mendelnicks will rush to
point out, it is pure German and means "to disgust." It was a word
that Hitler was reported to have used at the thought of Jews
continuing to live in Denmark ("Es ekelt mich.") It was at that
point that the Gestapo razia was ordered and the Danes had to hide
their Jewish compatriots.

Arre Komar.

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Mar  4 12:45:46 1994
From: meylekh viswanath (viswanath@draco.rutgers.edu)
Subject: Re: tumtum

Dan Leeson writes:
> But he was very effeminate in his mannerisms and was called "Onkle
> tim-tim."  Now I do not know to this day if that was a Yiddish expression
> from somewhere relating either to gay men or to effeminate men

"tumtum" is to be found in the gemore.  the gemore frequently
discusses the situation of a tumtum and an androginos; as I remember
it, the second one has characteristics of both male and female,
while the first has physical characteristics of neither (if I
remember right, due to perhaps a layer of skin covering up the
genitals).

Oykhet, a sheynem dank alemen vos hot unz geshikt a mazl tov baym
mallika's geboyrn vern.

Meylekh.

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri Mar  4 21:31:07 1994
From: Hal Berman <hberman@edu.uwo.ca>
Subject: White Challa

I read the story WHITE CHALLA when I took a Yiddish Literature
course at the  University of Toronto.  I found the story very
disturbing.

Hershl Berman

______________________________________________________
End of Mendele Vol. 3.268

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