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Today's Word "Nebbish"
"Jason's character in the play was a nervous, awkward nebbish of a man, utterly devoid of chutzpah."
"From what I read . . . it looks like Pa isn't anything like the nebbish Ma is always making him out to be..." Sounds like poor Pa got a bum rap, at least according to a 1951 book review that appeared in The New York Times. The unfortunate Pa unwittingly demonstrates much about the etymology of "nebbish," which derives from the Yiddish "nebekh," meaning "poor" or "unfortunate." Used interjectionally in Yiddish "poor thing!" the word was borrowed from Czech "nebohy." The not-so-ineffectual-after-all Pa also contributed something else the 1951 reference is the first known written instance of the word "nebbish" with its modern English sense.
This news arrived on: 11/02/2004
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