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May 15, 2015
This week’s theme
Words borrowed from Yiddish

This week’s words
shadchan
gunsel
tummler
shicker
heimisch

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Verbs
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A.Word.A.Day
with Anu Garg

heimisch or heimish or haimish

PRONUNCIATION:
(HAY-mish, HY-)

MEANING:
adjective: Homey; unpretentious.

ETYMOLOGY:
From Yiddish heymish (domestic), from Old High German heim (home). Ultimately from the Indo-European root tkei- (to settle or dwell), which also gave us home, haunt, hangar, site, situate, and hamlet. Earliest documented use: 1964.

USAGE:
“Most of his deal-making takes place over the heimisch cuisine of Gilda.”
Spencer Bright; Michael Levy; The Guardian (London, UK); Aug 18, 1997.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
I feel fairly certain that my hatred harms me more than the people whom I hate. -Max Frisch, architect, playwright, and novelist (15 May 1911-1991)

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