Mendele: Yiddish literature and language
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Contents of Vol. 14.052
May 4 , 2005

1) pisn boymelekh (Icek Moses)
2) pisn boymelekh (Yitskhak Luden)
3) pisn boymelekh (Avrumyankev Amkraut)
4) pisn boymelekh (Lyubov Dukker)
5) pisn boymelekh (David Spodick)
6) pisn boymelekh (Bernard Gershen)
7) kuni-leml (Lucas Bruyn)
8) tekhnishe inyonim (Noyekh Miller)

Visit Mendele on the Web: http://www.mendele.net

1)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 3, 2005
Subject: pisn boymelekh

Alex Jacobowitz's puzzlement over how "urinating on little trees"  could be
taken to mean "holier than thou" (Vol. 14.050) will probably  dissolve
quickly upon hearing that "boyml" means "cooking oil," and that when  one
says of someone in yiddish that "er meynt er pisht boyml," it's  equivalent
to the English expression, "he thinks his s--t don't stink."

And if someone's "holier-than-thou" attitude bespeaks a degree of conceit,
pomposity, or self-righeousness that demands additional emphasis, one could
add:  "... nisht bloyz boyml, nor shemen zayit!"  (pure olive oil)

Icek Mozes
San Francisco

P.S.  Though it's perhaps an unsavory juxtapostion, I do want to  add that
in my house, all forms of gepreyglte eyer (fried eggs), whether a
yayshnitse, a prezhenitse, or tseshlogene eyer (all  scrambled), or a
faynkokhn or omlet (an omelette), or shpigl-eyer  (sunny-side up), or
ibergekerte shpigl-eyer (over-easy), were preferably  fried in butter.
Boyml being called into service only when  milkhigs had to be avoided!

[Although we've called a halt to posts on eyer-makholim, the moderators
decided to let this last artful bit slip by by way of saluting
never-say-never acts--such as Celia Adler's famous farewell performances.]

2)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 3, 2005
Subject: pisn boymelekh

Regarding to number 3 - "pisn boymelekh":  as  I remember from my childhood
the real expression was "pishn mit boyml", and it means: speaking "holy",
"shmaltz" and not sincere.

Yitskhak Luden

3)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 3, 2005
Subject: pisn boymelekh

"pishen beymelekh" is highly improbable, the expression is probably beyml,
reflecting holy oil. We used to say "zi pisht mit shemen zayis".

Avrumyankev Amkraut

4)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 3, 2005

Subject: pisn boymelekh

Boymelekh means green saplings. "Er pisht boymelekh" ironically
refers to somebody, who is so special, that he doesn't need to plant the
sapling, and then water them - his "pishekhts" alone does the work!

Lyubov Dukker

5)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 3, 2005
Subject: Re: pisn boymelech

Mr Jacobowitz may be in the ballpark but wide of the mark if his  "holier
than thou " is the question. As I've heard it it's "pishn mit beyml" as  in
"zie gloybt as zie pisht mit boyml"--- "she thinks she urinates oil" which
appears  to be more apt than  watering the little trees (although maybe
that is used in that sense, I'm just  ignorant of it). Anyway, glad to see
they're using Yiddish in Augsburg and I  hope in Mr. J's Munich as well.
Max Weinreich said it: "Yiddish has magic; it  will outwit history."

David Spodick

6)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 4, 2005
Subject: Re: pisn boymelech

I suspect that this is slightly off color, and literally might mean,
"urinating oil", and since oil had value, it meant one was better than
others.  Probably a sarcastic comment.

Bernard Gershen

7)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 2, 2005
Subject: kuni-leml

Much as I enjoy suggestions that Yiddish derived words from the Dutch
language (see discussion on balebos-baas), I would like to point out that
instances where Yiddish borrowed from Dutch are rare. On the other hand,
Dutch took over many words from Yiddish (see the works of H.Beem).

In vol 14.049 Barney Martin suggests that leml could be a Yiddish variation
of Dutch lummel (from German Luemmel, related to Dutch lam = lame).

This is the same as saying that leml is not a lamb at all, but a `lomer' -
a lame person. (comp. to lame - Y. leymen). Possible, In that case the name
kuni-leml reminds of one of the figures in Ch. de Coster's Ulenspiegel:
Lamme Goedzak (translated into Yiddish by Moyshe Teyf: til ulenshpigel,
Emes, Moskve, 1938).  But suggesting that Dutch had anything to do with
kuni-leml is incorrect.

Lucas Bruyn

8)----------------------------------------------------
Date: May 04, 2005
Subject: tekhnishe inyonim (2)

tayere Mendelistn, it appears that virtually everyone on this list is now
able to read Yiddish email and if we were to include webmail and web pages
the list would be even greater.  That is very good news.

I will be sending out another test message soon.  It should display with a
right margin and the punctuation marks should be where they're supposed to
be; in short, a normal Yiddish sentence.  If it displays correctly, do
_not_ I repeat _not_ respond in any way.

If the sentence does _not_ show up or display correctly, please (this is
important) do _not_ reply by hitting the reply key. That results in a
message to Mendele rather than to me and complicates matters. [Mendelistn,
as I know from long experience, fayfn zikh on when asked to do something in
a particular way (am kshey oref nokh alemen!) but we have our methods too:
one of Mendele's moderators is the seventh son of a seventh son and he will
cause the hair of all sinners to fall out.]

So instead of hitting the reply button, please write directly to
mailto:nmiller@trincoll.edu.  When you do, and remember this is _only_ if
things don't work or look right, please indicate:

1. Machine (Win, Mac, Unix/Linux)
2. Operating system and version number
3. Mail reader and version number

a hartsikn dank,

Noyekh Miller

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End of Mendele Vol. 14.052

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