Yiddishism

[yid-i-shiz-uhm]

noun

1. a word, phrase, or linguistic feature characteristic of or peculiar to Yiddish.

2. the advocacy of Yiddish language and literature.

Other Word Forms

• Yiddishist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of Yiddishism¹

First recorded in 1925–30; Yiddish + -ism

Example Sentences

It’s not exactly a making-of, since the show was, by that point, already made, but it’s fascinating to see Sondheim take the singers aside to correct the tiny imperfections—the F sharp that has crept up to an A flat, the vowel sound in a particular Yiddishism—that have crept in over weeks of live performance.

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Of course, Mr. Roth had prepared a love song for the wedding, “I’m Kvellin’ for Ellen,” using the Yiddishism for an expression of pride or excitement.

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Mr. Trump’s attempted Yiddishism clearly struck a nerve with the festivalgoers, who were already anxious over the future of a language that was once a dominant tongue in the Jewish diaspora before being decimated by the Holocaust and assimilation.

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Covering the insult-o-rama that is the Trump campaign is a soul-draining undertaking, calling to mind another Yiddishism: “Darf min gehn in kolledg?”

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The actor Michael Douglas was the first to call him a “mensch”—from a Yiddishism for a person of integrity.

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