Sasha NewbornCritiques

Yiddish, You Say? Nu? is a little wordbook; you probably know some of these words already.
Yiddish, a Germanic language filled with expressions and words from Hebrew, has a rich vocabulary relating to human beings, emotions, attitudes—with blessings and a wealth of curses or exclamations. The editor spent five years in New York City, which is the second largest Jewish city in the world; Yiddish was part of daily life. Many Yiddish words or expressions have been absorbed into the English language, which had no term for schlemiel or klutz or shtick or kvetch or kibbitz or schlock or plotz or nosh or…

Read it for fun, read it to enrich your vocabulary. ISBN 978-0-930012-65-6

The Deadword Dictionary (isbn 978-0-930012-25-0) is a personal selection of words that have been stranded as orphans in perhaps a single expression, such as yore in "days of yore" or offing, as in "in the offing" (near future). Or perhaps the word simply is not used in normal speech, such as "troth" or "surcease." The editor is open for suggestions on other words that deserve a retirement from the English language. We gain so many new words every year; perhaps we should let go of "eftsoons" and "forsooth."

A very personal way of learning history. A lot of it not taught in school.