Tikvah
BELLYBUTTON
Alamy/Angela Reik.
Observation

November 7, 2018

What’s with the Hebrew Expression “To Jump over One’s Bellybutton”?

By Philologos

The tale of the pupik.

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

Avi Rockoff writes:

On my last visit to Israel, I learned of the Hebrew expression likpots me’al ha-pupik [literally, “to jump over one’s bellybutton”], which apparently means something like “to go off half-cocked.” Do you know anything about the origin of this colorful but curious expression? I don’t believe it comes from Yiddish, which to the best of my knowledge has nothing like it.

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