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May 3, 2002

This week's theme
Words borrowed from Yiddish

This week's words
chutzpah
mensch
zaftig
kvetch
schlep

This week's comments
AWADmail 79

Next week's theme
Words from law

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Read it today

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schlep

schlep (shlep) also schlepp, shlep, shlepp

verb tr.: To drag or haul something.
verb intr.: To move clumsily or tediously.
noun: 1. A tedious journey. 2. Someone who is slow or awkward.

[From Yiddish shlepn (to drag, pull) from Middle High German sleppen, from Middle Low German slepen.]

"Ten years ago, in a hilarious short story called .The North London Book of the Dead', Will Self wrote about a grieving son who discovers with shock that his dead mother has merely moved to Crouch End, where she continues to bake chocolate-chip cookies, schlep around with bags from Barnes & Noble and telephone him at the office. Indeed, mum tells him, when people die they all move to less fashionable parts of London, where they keep on doing pretty much what they were doing when they were alive."
Elaine Showalter; Posthumous Parenting; The Guardian (London, UK); Jun 17, 2000.

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