The Twisting Tale of the Yiddish Term for B—-

How a bizarre talmudic passage led to klafte, the derogatory word for an unpleasant woman.

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Rochelle Mogilner writes:

The Israeli television series Shtisel uses the word klafte a number of times in its Yiddish dialogue. As a Yiddish speaker, I know this means “bitch”—a woman who, to say the least, is not pleasant. Although it is part of the Hebrew lexicon here in Israel, my son in New York, who knows Hebrew very well, says he isn’t familiar with it. He thought it might be related to Hebrew kalba, a female dog, but I highly doubt it. I would guess it is of Slavic or Germanic derivation. What do you think?

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Got a question for Philologos? Ask him directly at philologos@mosaicmagazine.com.

Rochelle Mogilner writes:

The Israeli television series Shtisel uses the word klafte a number of times in its Yiddish dialogue. As a Yiddish speaker, I know this means “bitch”—a woman who, to say the least, is not pleasant. Although it is part of the Hebrew lexicon here in Israel, my son in New York, who knows Hebrew very well, says he isn’t familiar with it. He thought it might be related to Hebrew kalba, a female dog, but I highly doubt it. I would guess it is of Slavic or Germanic derivation. What do you think?

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