Sometimes, when no one sends a
klots-kashe (no, not a "log cereal," but a "stumper query") to the
Vortsman (and what are
you waiting for?), he goes out on the internet to rustle up an argument over a Yiddish word. In this, he's helped by Google, which alerts him to any mention of "Yiddish" anywhere on Earth. (He's seen over 50 reviews of that book about a policemen's union in Alaska.)
So it happened that the Vortsman came in contact with
Ken White, columnist for SFGate, the online version of the San Francisco
Chronicle. (Ken is also the president of the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA -- a fitting job for a native of Brooklyn's Flatbush neighborhood.)
Ken had written, in his May 12 column: "The Yiddish word 'meeskite' meaning 'someone so homely she's actually cute,' the proverbial face only a mother could love..."
Alerted by Google, the
Vortsman leapt to his keyboard and fired off this high-falutin' rejoinder:
"Sorry, Ken, your definition of the subject is off-base, as is the transliteration.
miyeskeyt (per the YIVO transcription standard) is defined in the 'Dictionary of Holy-Tongue (i.e., Hebrew and Aramaic)-Origin Words in Yiddish,' as follows (my translation): 'Antonym of beauty; something or someone who is repellent; improper behavior, swinishness.'
"The Modern English/Yiddish, Yiddish/English Dictionary defines it as 'ugliness...loathsome.'
"Nothing cute about it."
But Ken was not convinced. He came right back with this:
"Many thanks, Hershl. I appreciate the erudite point. But...I can certainly say that so-ugly-it's-cute was what the bubba's in Flatbush meant by the term. Either that, or they were uncharacteristically nasty about a few babies in strollers."
The
Vortsman's rejoinder:
"I think you're right in your second surmise about the Flatbush
bobes (note correction)...The
bobes knew the difference between a
sheynheyt (a beauty) and a
miyeskeyt. There's a far-outside possibility that some
bobe or other (an exception) might have used
miyeskeyt to 'ward off the evil eye' -- as the latter might be drawn to work its ways against a child publicly praised -- but, even in Flatbush, such
shtetl superstition would have been rare."
So...
a sof tsu der maynse - end of story? Nope. Ken's next message included this:
"...the evil-eye-warding was not so rare in my youth...Lots of spitting three times between V-shaped index and middle fingers, walking around rather than across the path of cats, red ribbons under mattresses and pennies in otherwise empty drawers. We didn't have much, but we were afraid of losing it."
The almost-last word was the
Vortsman's:
"I cannot (wouldn't dare) challenge your memories of the folk traditions on your block in Flatbush. Much earlier, in old Boro Park...in Brownsville and in the northeast Bronx, even the
bobes I knew had been educated by the
haskole (Haskala -- Enlightenment), by Yiddish literature and the Jewish labor movement to put away such remnants of
der alter heym -- the old country. They might have said
kholile -- God forbid -- once in a while, but that would've been akin to 'goodbye' -- god be with ye."
Next month (maybe): my discussion with Ken about his dog Hamish and his cat Tsimmes (
heymish and
tsimes, per the YIVO Standard).
_ _ _ _ _
Have a question for the
vortsman? Send him an
email and ask the meaning of a favorite, or confusing, word or phrase.
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Sunday, May 31 at 11:00 am
Meet Miriam Ulinover.
Friday, June 5
