Oy, such a gantze tsimmes about schlepping! Gevalt.

Just to clear up a very common misunderstanding - one which I shared until I did a university Yiddish course a few years ago - Yiddish did not evolve from German and is not a dialect or "bastardized" form of German. It evolved during the 9th century, in Europe, at the same time as Middle English and Old High German.

Historians can certainly correct me if I'm wrong about the timing of the other languages, but I do know that Yiddish dates back to the 9th century. It's a very old language and there's lots of classical literature written in it.

Plus, it comes in handy when you don't want your kids to know what you're talking about.

Meesthare, this what made me fluent in Yiddish: my parents' secrets.

Once I told my aunt what I've heard, they'd made sure I'm not around

I waas the token wasp in an office of jewish women and oy! my poor mother didn't understand a word i said. i now live in wales, and the two children who live with me (4&6) say things like "I hate to schlep my books around" in their little welsh accents. hysterical!

Awwww. You make me miss my Mommy. My mother was a Brooklyn girl that never left the city no matter where we lived. Many of the words here were part of my growing up. Every once in a while I'll let one slip into my conversation, and no one knows what I'm talking about. Of course, I now live in Kansas City....

I LOVE the idea of a Boat 'n Tote mongrammed with Schlep.

Thanks, for the memories....sigh.....

Ah my favorite greeting card. The front is the classic painting of the child with the bird cage. Inside it says "to my favorite Goya".


I'll never know where my mother got the expression out of her mid western/Irish background to look at a poorly dressed woman and say, "such a schmatta".

patrick,
schmatta doesnt refer to a person..it refers to their clothing ..as in an old garment in poor condition.

Huh? Yea of course it does. When my mother looked at the "poorly dressed woman" she was referring to the dress, not the woman. Not sure why that wasn't clear. I thought it was.

seemed a little unclear because "schmatta" is more than poorly dressed

I had a grandfather from New York who, while not Jewish, picked up a bit of the common Yiddish by osmosis and passed it on , (I also work with a far amount of Jewish people so hear a lot of the common words on occasion). I didn’t realize that it wasn’t all that common to everyone until I joked once with young student from rural Minnesota to ‘quit ya kvetching’, and she looked at me like I suddenly started talking Urdu.

Hi All You Schleppers!
I so enjoyed reading this post. Some of you were very funny, some literate, some testy, some fechaded,some fecaked. Excuse the spelling. Though, I think we can go to new places with all the "fe" words. I'm ferclemped, talk amongst yourselves
Annie

"seemed a little unclear because "schmatta" is more than poorly dressed" HUH?

OK, is this just as hard to understand? My mother looked at a poorly dressed woman and said "what an ugly, ragged dress". Do I need to explain in that case that "dress" refers to what the woman was wearing and not the woman herself? Yet it is the same sentence. If you knew what a schmatta is, you'd know she was referring to the dress, not the woman!

Sorry, I don't get why that is so hard to understand. I apologize for not giving a vivid detailed description of the exact dress each woman my mother said this about was wearing. I made the assumption (perhaps falsely) that anyone who understood that the term schmatta is often used to describe an old, ragged, ugly housedress would realize that it was the dress my mother was referring to and not the woman. I guess that was a false assumption.

Patrick, some Yiddish words have a different meaning in Hebrew. Perhaps Dick refers to the meaning of "shmata" as a sinful woman. I think I saw this use of the word in Herman Wouk's book about Israel, the name escapes me now.

The name of the book is "The Hope".

Actually, I just went back and reread all those posts and have figured out that Dick must have been "funning" with me. Clearly if he knew that schmatta could refer to a dress, he understood it the first time.
Sort of like my saying "look at that bald man -- what a rug" and then assuming that "rug" referred to the man and not to his toupee. Same idea.
Yep, I think Dick was just teasing.

Capecod,
the EJK was in Carle Place, LI. Came to Bailey's X Rds, VA with them in '64 and finished up in Rockville, MD 1980 when they went out of business. A great twenty five year career.

Ok, enough with the schlepping already. Seems like you guys are ready to move on to "spatzeering" (sp? - schapatzering?) - such a perfect, perfect word for something Fodorites do so much of!!

There's something about Yiddish for just conveying the very most in a perfect syllable or three....

patrick,

Sorry you had to go back and reread the posts.....it was late in the day..and I was just in one of those mooos.

So mittin drinnin, I'm sitting and drinking my tea, trying not to ketvch too much from the dreadfully quiet house after a 2 week visit from the kinda and I see a post about schlepping. Aha, I say to myself. It must be about luggage, or carry on luggage. I was wrong Thanks for the good laugh.