This week’s theme
Words borrowed from Yiddish

This week’s words
shadchan
gunsel
tummler
shicker
heimisch

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(GUHN-suhl)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A gun-carrying criminal.
2. A tramp’s young intimate companion.

ETYMOLOGY:

Alteration of the Yiddish genzel (gosling) influenced by the word gun. Ultimately from the Indo-European root ghans- (goose), which also gave us goose, gosling, and gander. Earliest documented use: 1914.

USAGE:

“An armored-car heist goes wrong, and the book’s antihero, Parker, is forced to hole up in a closed amusement park as he tries to duck a rabid pack of gunsels, kingpins, and crooked cops.”
Dana Jennings; Newly Released Books; The New York Times; Dec 26, 2013.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: