This week's theme
Words borrowed from Yiddish

This week's words
luftmensch
pisher
ganef
macher
kibitzer

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A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(PISH-uhr)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A bedwetter.
2. A young, inexperienced person.
3. An insignificant person: a nobody.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Yiddish pisher (pisser), from German pissen (to urinate). Earliest documented use: 1941.

USAGE:

"Natey said, 'I wanted to impress you, to show you that the pisher from Cabin Three at Camp Ojibwa was now a serious player.'"
Joseph Epstein; Onto a Good Thing; Commentary (New York); May 2013.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: