Mendele: Yiddish literature and language ______________________________________________________ Contents of Vol. 2 no. 70 September 22, 1992 1) Acronyms (Bob Rothstein) 2) ES and DOS (Nick Leibovic) 3) Question (Ellen Prince) 1)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 22:14:56 -0400 From: ROBERT.ROTHSTEIN@SLAVIC.umass.edu Subject: Acronyms One of the three lectures I gave for this summer's Workmen's Circle "Jewish Cultural Experience" at Circle Lodge was on humor in the Yiddish proverb. Among the mechanisms of humor I dis- cussed was the use of abbreviations or acronyms. Among my examples were the following: 1) "Khazn" makht: khazonim zaynen naronim. 2) "Zikne" makht: ziftsn, krekhtsn, nisn, hus(t)n. 3) Az men tut a shidekh, zol men kuken oyf der kales kni. (KNY = keren, nadn, yikhes.) 4) Er is a guter betsedek. (BTsDK = 'biz tsu der keshene'.) 5) Men meg im shikn nokhn "yaknhoz". (YKNHZ = yayin, kidush, ner, havdole, zman, the five blessings at the end of the sabbath; used to name an imaginary thing that a fool is sent to get.) 6) Mit "Shrage" ruft men oyf, ober a kon ken men nit oysnemen. (Pun on the Hebrew name Shrage, used to call a man with the Yiddish name Fayvl to the Torah, and the acronym ShRGA = sheln 'diamonds', royt 'hearts', grin 'spades', aykhl 'clubs'. With one card from each suit one cannot win a jackpot.) Bob Rothstein 2)---------------------------------------------------- Date: 21 Sep 1992 12:28:11 -0400 (EDT) From: BPHKNL@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu Subject: "es","dos"(ellen prince) es and dos need not be at the beginning of a sentence to mean roughly "it" and "this",respectively.but in colloquial usage they are often just fillers and don't refer to anything.this is the way i would understand it in my mameloshn. nick leibovic. 3)---------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Sep 92 17:52:06 -0400 From: "Ellen F. Prince" Subject: question for mischa van vlaardingen i was told that there are two words in dutch--at least in amsterdam 'slang'--that are very close to 'balebos', one meaning 'bully' and the other meaning something else, but also not unrelated to the sense of 'balebos'. (something like bolleboos? ballebaas? something like that?) is this at all familiar to you? also, do you know the origin of the dutch word baas 'boss'? i'm curious because the english word 'boss' is claimed to have come from caribbean dutch 'baas' but i haven't been able to find an etymology for dutch 'baas'. given that we know there were jews in the dutch caribbean (the oldest synagogue in the western hemisphere is in curacao, for example) and given the phonological and semantic relationship between 'baas' and 'balebos' and given the fact that we know dutch did borrow words from yiddish, it's hard not to fantasize that english 'boss' might ultimately be from yiddish 'balebos'! any insights you could give on this would be very much appreciated. a dank! ellen prince ______________________________________________________ End of Mendele Vol 2.70 If your message is intended for MENDELE, please write to: mendele@vax1.trincoll.edu If you want to discuss personal business or have a shmues with the shames, please write to: nmiller@vax1.trincoll.edu Please sign your articles.