Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun slang Madness; silliness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (Yiddish) craziness; senseless behavior or activity

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Yiddish מישעגאָסס (mishegoss), from משוגע (meshuge), “crazy”, from Hebrew משוגע (meshugga`), “crazy”, from שׁוּגַּע (shugga‘) (“be driven mad”), שִׁיגַּע (shigga‘) (“drive mad”). Compare Russian мишигас (mishigas).

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Examples

  • But the noted scholar Leo Rosten provides alternative spellings of "mishegoss" and "mishegaas."

    Beasts of Burden: Long Bikes and Shiny Riders BikeSnobNYC 2010

  • I think it's great that in the midst of all this mishegoss on the debt ceiling, budget, deficits, stimulus, the committee is taking the time to look at the longer term challenges that middle class families have been struggling with well before the recession took hold.

    Jared Bernstein: The Middle Class Squeeze Jared Bernstein 2011

  • So, the mishegoss that is the overseas market means that all those sorely needed production jobs are coming back home for Christmas, right?

    Tom Silva: Made in America? Tom Silva 2011

  • After the Janet Jackson bosom mishegoss, the NFL got scared of hiring young people, because all young people want to do is take off their clothes, and if you watch television, you know the last thing you ever see on TV is young people taking off their clothes.

    Who Plays Jersey in 2014? Jason Gay 2012

  • And it will be back, even though creator Matthew Weiner and the studio and network are in the midst of their usual negotiation mishegoss.

    William Bradley: Mad Men for Christmas William Bradley 2010

  • It's hardly shocking that Hanukkah and its festival of lights, doesn't hold a candle to Santa, the sleigh, the ambitious elves and his whole chimney mishegoss.

    Wendy Sachs: 'Tis the Season Jews Can't Compete Wendy Sachs 2010

  • And somewhere in this mishegoss, someone is making a shitload of dosh.

    Steven Weber: Making Degrade 2010

  • It's hardly shocking that Hanukkah and its festival of lights, doesn't hold a candle to Santa, the sleigh, the ambitious elves and his whole chimney mishegoss.

    Wendy Sachs: 'Tis the Season Jews Can't Compete Wendy Sachs 2010

  • And somewhere in this mishegoss, someone is making a shitload of dosh.

    Steven Weber: Making Degrade 2010

  • And it will be back, even though creator Matthew Weiner and the studio and network are in the midst of their usual negotiation mishegoss.

    William Bradley: Mad Men for Christmas William Bradley 2010

Comments

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  • "As part of the country-club drift of well-to-do Jews, of their general Episcopalianization, golf has become a great mania—mishegoss, in the good Yiddish word—for so many Jewish men of my generation."

    —Joseph Epstein, "'Uncle Bernie' and the Jews," Newsweek, January 19, 2009

    January 24, 2009

  • Safire on mishegoss

    The root is the same as that for meshuggene

    March 1, 2011

  • Also spelled mishegas, meshugaas, mishegaas.

    April 12, 2011