Hav­ing lived and worked in New York, in the Gar­ment indus­try, I came across a few Jew­ish peo­ple in my time. The slang or Yid­dish words that were used in every­day con­ver­sa­tion are still with me today. I love them. They’re so onomonopia (look it up.) I thought you would enjoy a lit­tle cul­tural diver­si­fi­ca­tion in the Gar­mento World. The word “Gar­mento” is not a yid­dish word, but really, would you have clicked on “Yid­dish Glossary?”

Obvi­ously these are words that can be used out­side the gar­ment world– but they seem so much more at home in the rag trade.

By the way, Gar­mento, is defined as any­one active in the gar­ment industry…there are dif­fer­ent lev­els of descrip­tion which you can sur­mise from the tone and con­text in which it is used — but that’s another post.

Bup­kis: Noth­ing. ”All that work, all I get is bupkis.”

Chutz­pah: Nerve. “It took a lot of chutz­pah to stand up to the boss.”

Farschim­melt: Slang for con­fused or over­whelmed. “I can’t decide, I’m all farschimmelt.”

Farklempt: Too emo­tional to talk. “I’m too farklempt, talk amongst your­selves.” Also known as Varklempt.

Kib­be­t­izer: Inter­fer­ing per­son or some­times just shmoozer. “No, you we weren’t inter­rupt­ing, we were just kibbetizing.”

K’vetch: whine or com­plain. “Stop your kvetch­ing already!”

Mashugga, Meshughe, Meshug­ina: Crazy, nuts, bonkers. “She’s sweet, but a lit­tle mashugga.”

Mazel Tov: Con­grat­u­al­tions or Good Luck. “Mazel Tov!”

Neb­bish: a nobody, awk­ward, geek. “He’s a lit­tle neb­bish, but he’s a doctor!”

Nosh: Snack. “I’ve been try­ing to stick to my diet, but instead I find myself all day long at the refrig­er­a­tor noshing.”

Nud­nick: Pest, annoy­ing per­son. ” Him? Just some nud­nick I met at Starbuck’s.”

Ongepat­shket: Pro­nounced “unga-pasht”. Clut­tered, over-done.  “Oy, the room décor, ongepatshket.”

Oy Vey! : Dis­may, pain,grief. “Oy! My son gives me such a headache!”

Shik­seh: Non– Jew­ish girl. “Every­one know he won’t set­tle down with that shik­seh. Ya date’em, ya don’t marry ‘em.”

Schmuck: Jerk. “Schmuck.” Nuf said.

Schmatta: Rags. “What was that schmatta she was dressed in?”

Shmaltzy: Sen­ti­men­tal, corny. “Ack, don’t get all shmaltzy on me.”

Schmeer: Usu­ally refers to the cream cheese on a bagel. A lit­tle more than a smear, a lit­tle less than a lot. ” Sesame bagel with a schmeer.”

Shlep: To carry unwill­ingly. “I had to shlep all the way up town for this?”

Shmooze: Chat, talk. “I was just shmooz­ing the room.”

Shmuts: A lit­tle dirt or mess. “There’s a lit­tle shmuts on your collar.”

Shnook: Patsy, sucker. “That poor shnook, he’ll fall for anything.”

Tchotchkes: Pro­nounced “chatch-kus”. Lit­tle orna­ments, dec­o­ra­tive items. “Oy, her piano was cov­ered with tchotchkes!”

Toches: Pro­nounced “took-us”. Behind, but­tocks, fanny. “I schlepped my toches all over town try­ing to find the place.”