Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 14.040
April 18 , 2005

1) aftsulokhes (Alan Astro)
2) keyn shum hant (Amitai Halevi)
3) keyn shum hant (Ruben Frankenstein )
4) gefrayter (Gertrude Dubrovsky)
5) frayer (Fradle Pomerantz Freidenreich )
6) frayer (Lyuba Dukker)
7) frayer (Gershon Freidlin)

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1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 14, 2005
Subject: Re: af tse-lokhes

Af tse-lokhes means "on spite", and the meaning "what a coincidence"
suggests (ironically, in dealing with a happy coincidence) that some
malevolent cosmic force is responsible for the occurrence of the
coincidence. It's kind of like saying "I'll be darned": "I'll be darned, I
ran into my best friend just when I needed help." On the contrary, seeing
your friend saved you from darnation. Given the Yiddish love for
antiphrasis, "af tse-lokhes" seems particularly felicitous! I've often
heard it used to bemoan an embarrassment of riches, or an embarras du
choix. Yudl Mark gives the pronunciation above, plus the more "complete"
Hebraicizing forms "af tsulakhes" and "af tsulehakhes" but doesn't go into
the meanings beyond spite. Niborski gives "exprŠs, par bravade", "on
purpose," and even "on a dare." Nice. Af tse-lokhes, someone is gonna point
out I didn't say it "comes" from the hif'il of kaf-ayin-samekh... Aza
kaysn...

Alan Astro

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 14, 2005
Subject: Re: keyn shum hant

Aviva Astrinsky [Mendele 14.036] writes: "shum in Hebrew (as in shum davar)
means exactly what keyn means in German".

This is an extremely  common misconception among speakers of Israeli
Hebrew. "Shum" means "any" and "shum davar" - colloquially used to mean
"nothing" - actually means "anything"; the "not" is implied. (Hebrew
speakers who do not believe me should check Even Shoshan's dictionary.)

The Hebrew equivalent of  "I don't have anything" is "ayn li shum davar",
in which "ayn" provides the negative, so "keyn shum hant" in  Hebrew would
be "ayn shum yad". There, "keyn" does not parallel "shum" but negates it,
coverting "any" to "none".

Amitai Halevi

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 15, 2005
Subject: Re: keyn shum hant

This is a typical misunderstanding of the Hebrew word "shum davar". It
means "anything"! It is just together with the negation "lo" (or "eyn")
that it gets the meaning "nothing" (or the German "kein/keyn"). Most
dictionaries give false information but Alexander Harkavy's dictionary
explains this correctly. "Keyn shum zakh" or "Keyn sum zakh nit" means in
extra emphasis: nothing whatsoever, absolutely nothing.

Ruben Frankenstein
Freiburg

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 15, 2005
Subject: Re: gefrayter

Re: Noyekh Miller's "gefrayter:"  The Yiddish 'fray' means free. A
'gefrayter' is one who has been freed. To me, it is very simple. At least,
that is what I learned growing up in my Yiddish speaking home where the
subject of freedom was a constant theme.

Gertrude Dubrovsky

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 16, 2005
Subject: Re: gefrayter/frayer:

The expression used in Israel is "al tihiye frayer", as  Noyekh Miller
indicates, "Don't be a chump , or a sucker". This  is borrowing the Yiddish
word frayer, someone who is free, or even  a free-thinker. In Hebrew  the
word is used in a different context...  "Don't give it away for free..."
There are many Yiddish words that are used in  modern Hebrew- (boydem,
etc.) Some are even conjugated, such as  the Yiddish word farginen,  which
in Hebrew has become transmogrified into the verb  l'fargen (infinitive),
and then conjugated : (past tense)-  firganti, firgantnta, etc.

Fradle Pomerantz Freidenreich

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 18, 2005
Subject: Re: gefrayter(?)

"Gefrayter" is the same as "frayer", which means gullible straight
arrow person, sucker, sort of. It comes from Yiddish-Russian criminal
argot, the so-called "fenya". For instance, an expression I hear quite often
(unfortunately): "Ya FRAYERnulsya", which means "I made a bad business
decision, paid too much, was conned", or something of that nature.

Lyuba Dukker

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: April 19, 2005
Subject: frayer

Check out the Threepenny Opera in German, in the Bordello Tango, or
Procurer's Ballad.  I believe the term is used there.

Gershon Freidlin
Pittsburgh

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