Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The language historically of Ashkenazic Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, resulting from a fusion of elements derived principally from medieval German dialects and secondarily from Hebrew and Aramaic, various Slavic languages, and Old French and Old Italian.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Jewish.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun A language used by German and other Jews, being a Middle German dialect developed under Hebrew and Slavic influence. It is written in Hebrew characters.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the Yiddish language.
- adjective informal Jewish.
- noun A West Germanic language that developed from
Middle High German dialects, with an admixture of vocabulary from multiple source languages including Hebrew-Aramaic, Romance, Slavic, English, etc., and written inHebrew characters which is used mainly amongAshkenazic Jews from central and eastern Europe.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew script
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word Yiddish.
Examples
-
The fact remains that Yiddish is Yiddish for Jewish.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Survey of American Jewish Language and Identity 2009
-
Like so many of the movies Carell has headlined over the past five years, "Dinner for Schmucks" -- despite a title Yiddish speakers understandably find nastily off-color -- will most likely put tushies in seats.
Upwardly mobile: Steve Carell rises above the material in 'Dinner for Schmucks' 2010
-
At the end, they had a considerable amount of backup from the audience on three rousing pieces, one in Yiddish, the other two in Ukrainian, which brought tears to my eyes, as people singing wholeheartedly together always does.
My Friday, By Delia deliasherman 2010
-
Usually in Yiddish which they pretend not to understand.
-
At the tender age of 11, Walter caught the acting bug, and started playing in Yiddish theatre.
John Farr: Missing Mr. Matthau John Farr 2010
-
At the end, they had a considerable amount of backup from the audience on three rousing pieces, one in Yiddish, the other two in Ukrainian, which brought tears to my eyes, as people singing wholeheartedly together always does.
My Friday, By Delia deliasherman 2010
-
I'm sure that they talked about it among themselves in Yiddish, but I didn't know it.
-
Usually in Yiddish which they pretend not to understand.
-
What about if he was Jewish and asked a question in Yiddish?
-
Yiddish is the primary language, with very little American spoken.
“The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” by Michael Chabon (Harpercollins, 2007) « The BookBanter Blog 2010
Comments
Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.