The phrase he doesn’t know from (something), meaning “he doesn’t know about (something),” is a word-for-word borrowing, or calque, of a Yiddish phrase “Er veys nit fun.” This is part of a complete episode.
When Julia emigrated to New York City from the Dominican Republic, she noticed that her Jewish friends on Long Island often playfully...
Jennifer in Andrews, South Carolina, is curious about the term case quarter, meaning “a single 25-cent coin — not two dimes and a...
The term nebby, meaning meddlesome or nosy, literally derives from the word neb, or “nose,” a term that’s been around in...
Kathleen from Ithaca, New York, remembers her mother saying Go fry ice! meaning “Bug off!” It’s probably a minced oath...
Susan in Traverse City, Michigan, wonders if there’s a single English word that denotes the relationship between two mothers-in-law...
Elliott, from Cape Cod, Massachusetts, asks about the Yiddish word variously spelled farblonjet, farblunget, and other ways. It means lost...
You must log in to post a comment.