A reader identified as “JA” wants to know: “Does the English word ‘slug,’ as in to slug someone, come from Yiddish shlogn, to hit? They certainly sound very similar.” My thinking about this went ...

“Schmegoogle: Yiddish Words for Modern Times” by Daniel Klein is available at Explore Booksellers in Aspen (221 E. Main St., 970-925- 5336, explorebooksellers.com) and Bookbinders in Basalt (Willits ...

Jeopardy! host Mayim Bialik has gone viral after sharing the real meaning behind well-known Yiddish words. Bialik, 47, who comes from a family of Jewish immigrants has been speaking Yiddish since she ...

The richness of our language owes much to English being a wonderfully mongrelized tongue that uses words and expressions adopted from almost everyone. This is a good thing, but it creates pitfalls to ...

We all know who matters in life. Family. Friends. These are the people we write about, worry about, complain about. And we have so many words for them! Bestie. Sis. Bro. Partner-in-crime. We’ve got a ...

TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. About the Archive This is a digitized version of an article from The Times’s print archive, before the start of online ...

A California seventh-grader aced “Yiddishkeit” and later the Hebrew word “keriah” on the way to being named one of eight co-champions. OK, not quite, but last week, when the first rounds of the finals ...