Our little list is not the whole ‘megillah’, but it ain’t ‘bubkes’

Bubkes

English takes on new words all the time. We’ve been borrowing liberally from other language – French, Greek, and German to mention just a few – for centuries. More recently, in the last hundred years, we’ve added many Yiddish words in our melting pot.

What follows is a list of some of the more well-known words of Yiddish origin to have entered English. It should be noted that these are not direct English translations of Yiddish words; they are words from Yiddish that have been sufficiently naturalized in our language to be included in an English language dictionary.

Definition:

: the least amount; also : nothing

About the Word:

The Yiddish word bubkes (also spelled in both English and Yiddish as bupkes or bubkus) is thought to be short for the colorful kozebubkes, which means ‘goat droppings’ – something you may want to consider the next time you find yourself saying ‘I’ve got bubkes.’

Example:

“And I got bubkes for alimony and child support. Nice.” – Olivia Goldsmith, The First Wives Club, 2008

Glitch

Definition:

: a usually minor malfunction

About the Word:

It should be stated at the outset that the parentage of glitch is not assured, something we should not hold against so useful a word. Merriam-Webster states (as do many other dictionaries) that the word is ‘perhaps from Yiddish glitsh,’ a word that means ‘slippery place.’ The first known print use of the word is from 1940, when it was reported as being used in the slang of radio announcers, referring to an egregious mispronunciation.

Example:

“United Airlines Resumes Flights Delayed by Computer Glitch.” – New York Times (headline), 8 July 2015

Klutz

Definition:

: a person who often drops things, falls down, etc. : a clumsy person

About the Word:

The story of klutz is a classic immigrant’s tale. The word came to our language but a few generations ago, began its hardscrabble life as a non-standard lexical item, and through dint of hard work and having the good fortune of beginning and ending with two very funny letters, managed to make itself a widely accepted and useful member of our language. There does not appear to be any written evidence of klutz in English prior to 1959, when Carl Reiner explained the meaning of the word to the Los Angeles Times: “[a klutz is] a dancer who dances as good as he can, but instead of just applause he also gets laughter.” It comes from the Yiddish word klots, which means ‘wooden beam.’

Example:

“Incidentally, the kid used all our equipment, fiddling like the klutz he is with a brand-new Panavision camera, which now when I press the button makes a sound like when you turn slowly the wood handle on those tin party noisemakers Elsie calls groggers.” – Woody Allen, Mere Anarchy, 2007

Bagel

Definition:

: a firm doughnut-shaped roll traditionally made by boiling and then baking

About the Word:

The bagel, both the humblest and mightiest of all bread forms, is, unsurprisingly, of Yiddish origins. The word that names it comes from that language’s word beygl. It is widely speculated (at least by those who do such speculation) that the Yiddish word is descended from the Middle High German word böugel, which is from another German word for ring or bracelet.

Example:

“Among the most frequently heard complaints of New Yorkers who visit Israel is that ‘you can’t get a good bagel in Tel Aviv.'” – Ray Jones, Great American Stuff: A Celebration of People, Places, and Products that Make Us Happy to Live in America, 1997.

-nik

Definition:

: a person connected to an activity, an organization, a movement, etc.

About the Word:

“You’re always so persistent about things. You’re such a nudnik. Why do you ask me to eat shrimp? What the hell is so big about shrimp?” – Thomas J. Cottle, When the Music Stopped: Discovering My Mother, 2004

Example:

There are many different kinds of -niks, a handy word ending which comes from the Yiddish suffix of the same spelling, and denotes a person who is connected to a group or a cause. Among the more common words that utilize this are beatnik, neatnik, peacenik, nudnick, and the ever popular no-goodnik. Russian also has this suffix, and English has borrowed -nik words from Russian too, including refusenik and Raskolnik (a dissenter from the Russian Orthodox Church).

Futz

Definition:

: fool around

About the Word:

Futz is a word that has the sort of etymology that will make small children think that studying language is an enjoyable pursuit. It is thought to have come (no one is entirely certain) from a modification of the Yiddish phrase arumfartsn zikh, the literal translation of which is ‘to fart around.’

Example:

“But, as he got closer, I noticed he looked pretty sober, like there was more on his mind than just futzing around shooting the bull and getting in everybody’s way.” – Ken Kesey, Sometimes a Great Notion, 1964

Megillah

Definition:

: a long involved story or account

About the Word:

For a long time before megillah was the word that was used to refer to an overlong story or convoluted production its primary meaning was a considerably different one. The Megillah is typically read out loud from a scroll in course of certain Jewish holidays. At the beginning of the 20th century megillah began to be used in a figurative sense to refer to a long or complicated tale. It comes to English from the Yiddish word megile, which is itself from the Hebrew mĕgillāh, meaning ‘scroll.’

Example:

“Yesterday I was sore on the whole Megillah down here; to-day you couldn’t drive me away mit wild animals.” – New York Tribune, 25 Feb. 1914

Reading a document aloud is the best proofing trick I’ve ever found! Now you can let Microsoft do it for you. Wendy, our IT tips and tricks adviser, tells you how!

Wendy

Mon, May 2, 6:54 AM (2 days ago)

Found on the Review tab in the Speech group, Read Aloud does just that, reads your document out loud to you. The tool is simple to use with only a few customization features.

When you activate the feature a tool bar is displayed with typical audio buttons of previous, play/pause, and next. The Previous and Next buttons jump you forward and backward by paragraph. There is a settings icon that allows you change the read back speed, and you can change the voice from male to female based on your preference.

Give it a try and see what you think!

No, Microsoft isn’t censoring your politically incorrect language

1 MAY 2022

Yet again, Microsoft finds itself accused of “censoring” some “politically incorrect language” in another outbreak of the culture war.  It puts Office Watch in the unusual situation of defending Microsoft, using some facts about how Microsoft Word really works.

The headline example goes right to the heart of the current debate about transgender issues by highlighting Word’s reaction to “biologically female”.

If Word’s gender bias check is on (a big “if”) then it’ll suggest either “Assigned female at birth” or “Designated female at birth” as optional alternatives.  Or choose ‘Ignore’ and the blue dot underlines will go away.  There’s a similar response to the term “Biologically male”.

The topic has appeared again with a piece in the UK Telegraph “Microsoft Word is censoring you by altering your politically incorrect language”. Even the headline is wrong on two counts. Word does no censoring and doesn’t alter text either.

This has come up before in Has Microsoft Word gone ‘woke’ and politically correct? and the Gill Sans font debate, and again we’re not taking sides.  Anyone who wishes can discuss the topic, politely please, between yourselves.  We’ll add some factual light, rather than rhetorical heat. Our aim is to help Office Watchers and Word users understand what’s possible in Microsoft Word.

Buried down in the fifth paragraph of the Telegraph article is a note that users can opt in or out of the feature.  The article doesn’t mention that the ‘gender bias’ and similar options default OFF so most people won’t even know the options even exist.

“Microsoft appears to be trying to influence how people discuss social issues, … “ says one commentator quoted in the article.

How Word inclusiveness really works

Let’s look at the examples that have appeared in social media to see how modern Word really works plus similar words that are overlooked.

To see any of these extra checks you need to dig deep into Microsoft Word.  File | Options | Proofing | Writing Style | Grammar and refinements then scroll down to Inclusiveness.

Word 2021 and Word 2019 only have the Gender-Specific Language check.

All the Inclusiveness choices are OFF initially.  Only the user or their IT department can turn them on. The options are so deep in Word’s system, they are unlikely to be turned on accidentally.

Landlord or Policemen

“landlord” or “landlady” suggested replacements are “property owner” or “proprietor” which are gender-neutral but not the same definition.

“policemen” or “policewomen” have a gender-neutral suggestion “police officers”.

Bypass Inclusiveness tests with Capital letters or double quotes

As we’ve pointed out before, many of the grammar and other checks can be bypassed just with a capital letter or double quotes.

It’s not true that “Postman Pat” is corrected by Word (it’s a much-repeated ‘fact’ that is easily checked, but isn’t).

When capitalized, Word doesn’t flag “Postman” for inclusiveness because it’s a name (proper noun).

Double quotes will also bypass inclusiveness checks, but not single quotes.

Housewife vs Househusband

Another example that makes some people unhappy is “housewife”.  We’re surprised that ‘househusband’ doesn’t get the same treatment.  Both words are accepted spellings but only one has an inclusiveness warning. It’s an anomaly in the system.

“housewife” suggested replacements “stay-at-home spouse”, “stay at home parent” or “homemaker”

Google’s similar inclusiveness system flags “motherboard” but Word does not.

Microsoft’s response

Microsoft’s response is quite polite and bland.

“Microsoft understands that not every Editor suggestion may be suitable for all users and all scenarios. That’s why we let users be in control of their final output.

“Editor is a completely optional tool that users can turn on or turn off at any point. Editor does not make any autocorrections, all suggestions are just that – suggestions for the user to consider – and the user has control over which suggestions they choose to use, if any.

“In Word, users will have control at the critique/suggestion level as they will be able to turn on and off each one of them individually.”

A rewritten response

We like to see a stronger reply from Microsoft like this.

“You must be kidding; this is complete nonsense. Microsoft Office doesn’t censor customers.  Anyone using Word knows that Microsoft doesn’t tell our users what to write.

All the inclusiveness features in Word are OPTIONS that our customers can choose to use. There are choices to use grammar tests and even spell checks in Word are optional.

Inclusiveness options are not on for new installs, customers must choose to show the prompts.  Even then, the messages make SUGGESTIONS that each user can accept or reject. There’s even a specific “Ignore’ button provided.”

Which only goes to show why Office Watch will never launch a corporate PR subsidiary <g>.

I had never really heard this term before, but it’s not hard to imagine what it means. Here’s Dictionary.com’s explanation with an attribution to Molly Jong-Fast in The Atlantic and some examples.

SLANG DICTIONARY

rage farming

[ reyj fahr-ming ]

Published May 13, 2022

WHAT IS RAGE FARMING?

Rage farming is a slang term for the political tactic of intentionally provoking political opponents to create or increase exposure for one’s group or cause. The tactic is primarily associated with conservative and far-right political groups.

The term rage farming is always used critically. It is typically applied to the act of posting intentionally inflammatory content or otherwise trolling political opponents online to elicit a large number of angry responses, thus leading to widespread exposure for the original poster. However, the term may be applied to practices other than online posts, such as making inflammatory comments in interviews or speeches that will be widely covered by the media.

RELATED WORDS

political spectrum, brigading, bold-faced lie, shadow docket, shadow banning

WHERE DOES RAGE FARMING COME FROM?

The original use of the verb phrase rage farm to refer to a political tactic is often credited to researcher John Scott-Railton, who used it (in the form rage farmed) in a January 2022 Twitter post in reference to inflammatory online posts like those that had been recently made by the Texas GOP Twitter account.

The term was popularized by a January 2022 article in The Atlantic by Molly Jang-Fast titled “Owning the Libs Is the Only GOP Platform.” The term is thought to have gained popularity in part due to giving a name to a practice recognized as increasingly common by political observers, especially in the context of social media.

In rage framing, the term farming is used in a figurative way that’s similar to how it’s used in terms for other practices, such as data farming.

WHO USES RAGE FARMING?

The term rage farming is used by critics of the political tactic, which is closely associated with conservative and far-right political groups.

JUST ADDED

rage farming, hermano, food coma, National Medal of Arts, Talk Like a Pirate Day

NOTE

This is not meant to be a formal definition of rage farming like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of rage farming that will help our users expand their word mastery.