As we ring in the new year at a time of weighty things, beset as we are by anxieties and news of catastrophes, I thought it might be a welcome respite to look instead at some trivialities. As it turns out, Yiddish is fond of speaking of little bits, trifles, bagatelles, and insignificant nothings. It seems there’s a kind of poetry in paucity.
The most common, unmarked word in this regard is “kléynikayt” (literally, a littleness), meaning something of little significance. To express how an object for sale seems very inexpensive one might say, “es kost a kléynikayt” (it costs nothing). But this is Yiddish, of course, so we can already expect some irony waiting in the wings. Were you to exclaim “a kléynikayt!” you’d really be saying “that’ no small thing” or “remarkable!” However, if you wanted to express the same thing but with a roll of the eyes, you would say instead “eyn kléynikayt!” One has to admire such subtlety.
Other synonyms for insignificances come from the word “nisht” (not), the standard negating particle. “Górnisht,” originally a phrase meaning “nothing at all,” came to be fused and is now the standard way of saying “nothing,” as in “es ken górnisht helfn” (nothing’ll help). It can also be used as a noun to refer to something trifling, “a nothing.” Equally in the negative zone are “níshtikayt” (literally, a nothingness), referring to insignificance or lack of worth, and “níshte” and “nishtl,” both of which refer to a trifle. The latter has the added specialized meaning of “joker” when one is playing cards. As a result, in a card game, if you have a worthless card, it’s a “nishtl.”
Many words in this arena come from the Hebraic stratum. One of the more common is “shíbesh.” In Hebrew it can refer to confusion or a mistake, but in Yiddish it is something trifling, and sometimes more specifically an inadequate amount of money. The connection between the two is not easy to make, so for the moment it’s left to conjecture. But if one were given a paltry amount of money for something, I can see saying: “Clearly there’s been some mistake.”
One of the more colorful expressions is “shíyepíye,” meaning something insignificant or a pretext. This comes originally from the Talmud (Megillah 13b) in which Haman explains why the Jews are bad. One of his indictments is that they are idlers whose constant refrain is “shehi pehi,” which the Rashi says is an acronym for “Shabat Ha-Yom, Pesach Ha-Yom” — “It’s Sabbath today; it’s Passover today.” Citing religious holidays on which work is forbidden therefore gives a pretext for idleness. Based on the notion that a pretext is an explanation of little worth, the meaning thus shifts to the connotation of insignificance. Both of these senses are present in Yiddish. So, for example, “zi pátert im op mit shíyepíye” means “she’s using some pretext to make him go away.” One can also use it with the verb “ópkumen mit” (make do with), as in “Er kumt op mit shíyepíye,” meaning “he’s barely scraping by.” It’s from this latter sense that we get the humorous neologism — should you ever find yourself in the need to say this in Yiddish — “shíyepíye-budzhét” (austerity budget).
The word “kítniyes,” too, has come to mean trifles. It is also the word for legumes, specifically as a category of food which Ashkenazi Jews are not permitted to eat on Passover. These include such things as beans and lentils, whose individual units are of insignificant size. Moreover, in Hebrew it appears that the root of the word, k-t-n, has to do with being small or insignificant. Hence the motivated shift in meaning. Keeping to the Passover theme, there are the “sháryerokes,” meaning trifles or odds-and-ends. This is a reference to the four questions during the Passover seder, specifically to the “rest of the greens” (she’ar yerakot) that one eats all year round while on Passover one eats only the bitter herb. Finally, there is a Biblical reference, namely “hevl,” rendered traditionally in Hebrew as “vanity” (as in “vanity of vanities, all is vanity” [Kohelet 1:2]), but which in Yiddish can also refer to trifling things.
There are plenty of non-Hebraic words as well. Not only “shmíndrik” (not to be confused with “shméndrik”) but also “shmóntse” and “shmókhte” mean a trinket or a trifling object, usually of poor quality as well. If one were to talk not of an object but instead of a matter or situation of insignificance one would call it “shmokhteláy.” This dismissive quality is helped along by the initial “shm-” sound, which recalls a disparaging grammatical feature of Yiddish that I will address in a future column. Finally, one of my own favorites is “shalemóyz” (also spelt “shalamóyz”), a word of obscure origin but which means a trifle or a thingamabob or even, when referring to a person, an odd duck. The last part of the word looks like Yiddish “moyz” (mouse), which is perhaps part of its charm. But to any Yiddishist, one cannot hear the word without thinking immediately of the poem “Shalamóyz” by the wonderful Yiddish poet Moyshe-Leyb Halpern (1886-1932), a poem which begins
Ikh trog a por álte pantófl,
ikh trog matrózn-hóyzn,
un der gast mit di briln lozt mikh nit op
ikh zol im dertséyln fun di shalamóyzn
fun di barímte heldn shalamóyzn.
I’m wearing a pair of old slippers,
I’m wearing sailor’s trousers,
And the guest in the glasses won’t stop hounding me
To tell him of the shalamóyzn
The famous heroes, the shalamóyzn.
In their translation (“Shalamouses”), Benjamin and Barbara Harshav note the possibility that “the poem mocks the hero worship of the Soviet Union by the Communists.” It’s a send up one wouldn’t put past Halpern. But the absurdity of the word itself makes for pure verbal enjoyment.
With a reminder to take some time to enjoy the little things, I wish you all a happy new year. And as always, “léyent gezúnterhéyt” — read it in good health.
Please send Yiddish questions to: yiddishcolumn@americanisraelite.com.
