Bicycle Diaries: Talk Yiddish

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20.10.07

Talk Yiddish


Back in June I posted about the Biblical Curse Generator. I thought it was an excellent tool for finding the right curses when cagers abuse their road privileges.

Well, it's Shabbat. In a humble effort to promote Judeo-Christian understanding I thought I'd provide some equally effective Yiddish curses. So what can you say when a tipesh, or moron, hits a biker when making a right-hand in front of them?

Finding the right words is important. Yiddish categorizes the idiocies of others in a thousand ways. Therefore, fine distinctions matter. First, is s/he a shmendrik, kuneh-laiml, or yold? A shmendrik will hit a biker because s/he expects it to get out of his way. A kuneh-laiml, on the other hand, didn’t notice the biker in the first place. And a yold is simply a fool who believes both when they claim that hitting the biker wasn't their fault.

Personally, I favor shoyteh ben pikholts: literally, a fool with a woodpecker for a father. Then you should add, Vilst krikhn? Zolst meer krikhn afn boyekh! In other words, You want to crawl? You should crawl on your belly! If you get a response, just throw in Zits in krits in shveig. That means Sit and gnash your teeth and be silent.

... much more creative, and satisfying, than the overworked Flipping the Bird.

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