tumbledry

Yiddish words

Wikipedia has a List of English words of Yiddish origin. Quite useful, as these words are use far more often than you’d think. I think I’ll adopt nosh, a noun or verb meaning “snack”.

Incidentally, here’s one more: the word “schmeer” means to spread, as in cream cheese in a bagel. I think this has evolved to the English “smear”. Reading the word, I immediately thought of the “smear layer” in dentistry, which consists of plugs in dentinal tubules — when removed with a quick acid etch, restorative materials are able to reach into those tubules and hold on to the tooth far more effectively. Yiddish dentistry.

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Comments

Dan McKeown

Einstein Bros. Bagels calls their cream cheese “shmear.” It is very delicious.

Alexander Micek

Plus, you can talk about the “schmear” layer on your bagel.

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