The Origins of Foolishness

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“Dear Philologos,” writes Mosaic reader Jeremy Benstein from Israel:

At a recent dinner, a discussion arose as to the origins of the Yiddish word narishkayt, “foolishness.” Although everyone seemed to agree that it came from Hebrew na’ar, “young man,” that didn’t sound right to me. In the first place, the first vowel of narishkayt is spelled with an aleph in Yiddish and not with an ayin like the first vowel of na’ar. And secondly, na’ar in the Bible and other Jewish sources doesn’t have the connotation of childishness or puerility that would go with the meaning of foolishness. When a quick Internet check revealed that Narr in German meant “fool” and närrisch meant “foolish,” I triumphantly wrote the dinner guests that the case was closed: the Yiddish word had a Germanic, not a Hebrew, derivation.

But [Dr. Benstein continues] this may have been premature. One of my correspondents, a professor of Jewish studies, wrote back:

According to my trusty German etymological dictionary, “The origin of Narr (Middle High German narre, Old High German narro) is uncertain.” In other words, it has no easily identifiable source in Germanic or Latin/Romance languages. I would submit, therefore, that the influence of Yiddish/ Hebrew on the old German word is as likely an etymology as any.