Yiddish Slang, Jargon, and New Words from Double-Tongued Dictionary

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baleboosta n. She was, in the truest sense, a baleboosta, a Yiddish term meaning a remarkable cook and “boss of the kitchen.” My father tells stories of her legendary cooking: Rolling out enough dough to cover the kitchen table to make homemade soup noodles, roasting a chicken to perfection, making matzo balls as light as feathers. [Yiddish Food & Drink] [full cite] (Sep. 15, 2006)

beshert n. I am sad today because my Mother’s Day gift from our beshert child’s birth country’s gift to us was a demand for yet another document, one we have sent many times… Beshert is yiddish for destiny or soul mate. [Yiddish] [full cite] (May. 31, 2004)

chazer caucus n. We have a new caucus on Capitol Hill: the chazer caucus. For those of you who might not be hip, chazer is the Yiddish word for pig. As in, “Gee, that person has so much [fill in the blank], to grab for more is just being a chazer.” [English Yiddish Politics] [full cite] (Sep. 11, 2005)

ferkakdeh n. Ferkakdeh is Yiddish for “completely fucked.” [Yiddish] [full cite] (May. 31, 2004)

frum adj. “All of a sudden they decided this side of the town is not for them, they needed to go to the other side, because they’re more frum,” she said, using the Yiddish word for religious. [Yiddish Religion] [full cite] (Nov. 10, 2006)

gevaltize v. In certain precincts of the Jewish community, a person who insists that the sky is falling, despite ample evidence to the contrary, is said to gevaltize—a neologism derived from the famous Yiddish cry of shock or alarm. [English Yiddish] [full cite] (Jan. 15, 2007)

hekdesh n. Perhaps because he’s a sloppy fellow whose daughters, borrowing a Yiddish word from their grandmother, accuse him of creating a hekdesh (messy house) wherever he goes, Councilman David Yassky doesn’t mind immersing himself in a topic that inspires most constituents to hold their noses: garbage. [Yiddish] [full cite] (Jun. 17, 2005)

hekdeshness adj. Perhaps because he’s a sloppy fellow whose daughters, borrowing a Yiddish word from their grandmother, accuse him of creating a hekdesh (messy house) wherever he goes, Councilman David Yassky doesn’t mind immersing himself in a topic that inspires most constituents to hold their noses: garbage.…Mr. Yassky…confesses to a frenzied tidying of his desk at 250 Broadway in advance of a news media intrusion (his offices, like his car, tend to hekdeshness). [Yiddish] [full cite] (Jun. 17, 2005)

hocker n. Sem wonders if skeptical rabbis mean that the press can’t do its job, and that therefore “hockers” are the best sources of information for what the rabbis think…When it comes to the “hock” associated with those rabbis, a journalist who has a similar relationship is just as valuable as the hocker, perhaps even better in some cases I’ve been involved with, because the rabbi knows that the journalist isn’t just looking for the latest lashon hara. [New York City Hebrew Yiddish United States] [full cite] (Jun. 3, 2004)

hocker n. Some reporters are hockers, which may be true. However, once they begin publishing what they hock, Rabbis may be reticent to speak to them…Of course, there are Hockers which have poor information & hockers with better information…. [English Yiddish] [full cite] (Jun. 8, 2004)

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