
May 24, 2017
Some Yiddish Words Jump into American English Quickly. Others Take Much Longer.
By PhilologosThe process results from, in equal measure, Jewish separateness and Jewish assimilation.
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Bertrand Horwitz writes from Asheville, North Carolina:
Your recent discussion of how the Yiddish-derived word “noodge” became incorporated in American-Jewish English and went from there to general American English reminds me of another germinating Yiddish word that suddenly appeared on national TV during the Trump-Clinton-Russia imbroglio: mishigas. Is its derivation Hebrew, Slavic, or German?