This week’s theme
Words borrowed from Yiddish

This week’s words
shadchan
gunsel
tummler
shicker
heimisch

---

A.Word.A.Day

PRONUNCIATION:

(TOOM-luhr)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A comedian, social director, or entertainer who encourages an audience or guests to participate in entertainment activities.
2. One who incites others to action.
3. A lively, mischievous man.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Yiddish tumler (one who makes a racket), from tumlen (to make a racket), from German tummeln (to stir). Earliest documented use: 1930s.

NOTES:

Catskill resorts in the Catskill Mountains in New York State were a popular vacation destination for Jews during the last century. They were known as the Borscht Belt, after borscht, a type of beet soup popular with Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants. Tummlers were a standard fixture in these resorts.

USAGE:

“And when Lou Goldstein proved adept at other forms of entertainment, the hotel signed him up as its tummler.”
Joseph Berger; Lou Goldstein; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Apr 29, 2012.

“An advance man is the tummler of American politics. He is the guy who gets out the crowds, creates a sense of excitement around the candidate, and generates the smell of victory at every stop.”
Burt Glinn; The Wit and Wisdom of a Political Barnum; New York; May 31, 1971.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: