Yiddish
Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...
word which literally translates to "person", and figuratively means "a person of integrity and honor"..
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
American humorist
Leo Rosten
Leo Calvin Rosten (Yiddish: ; April 11, 1908 – February 19, 1997) was an American writer and humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography.
Early life
Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking famil ...
describes a as "someone to admire and emulate, someone of noble character. The key to being 'a real mensch' is nothing less than character, rectitude, dignity, a sense of what is right, responsible, decorous". The term is used as a high compliment, implying the rarity and value of that individual's qualities.
Overview
The Yiddish ''mensch'' developed alongside the
Middle High German
Middle High German (MHG; or ; , shortened as ''Mhdt.'' or ''Mhd.'') is the term for the form of High German, High German language, German spoken in the High Middle Ages. It is conventionally dated between 1050 and 1350, developing from Old High ...
, both derived from the
Old High German
Old High German (OHG; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...
''mennisco''. The spelling "''mentsh''" is used less frequently than "''mensch''", but the former is the transliteration recommended by the
YIVO
YIVO (, , short for ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. Estab ...
.
''Mensch'' has migrated as a
loanword
A loanword (also a loan word, loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language (the recipient or target language), through the process of borrowing. Borrowing is a metaphorical term t ...
into
Yinglish
Yiddish words used in the English language include both words that have been Language shift, assimilated into English language, Englishused by both Yiddish and English speakersand many that have not. An English sentence that uses either may be des ...
and
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...
with the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany, the country of the Germans and German things
**Germania (Roman era)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
spelling to refer not to a person, but a particularly good person, similar to a "stand-up guy": a person with the qualities one would hope for in a friend or trusted colleague. ''Mentshlekhkeyt'' () likewise literally means "humanity" but can also refer to the properties which make a person a ''mensch''.
The word and the underlying concept have had an impact on popular culture. ''
The Mensch on a Bench
''The Mensch on a Bench'' is a Hanukkah-themed book and doll set created in 2012 by Neal Hoffman, inspired by a joke he had made about the 2005 book and doll ''The Elf on the Shelf''. In 2013, the crowdfunding campaign was launched on Kickstarte ...
'' is a 2012
Hanukkah
Hanukkah (, ; ''Ḥănukkā'' ) is a Jewish holidays, Jewish festival commemorating the recovery of Jerusalem and subsequent rededication of the Second Temple at the beginning of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd ce ...
-themed book and doll set parodying ''
The Elf on the Shelf
''The Elf on the Shelf'' is the name of a 2005 American picture book for children, written by Carol Aebersold and her daughter Chanda Bell, and its accompanying toy elf. The book was illustrated by Coë Steinwart and tells a Christmas-themed st ...
''. A life-size version of the doll was adopted as the mascot of Team Israel at the World Baseball Classic in 2016. According to pitcher
Gabe Cramer
Gabriel Isaac Cramer (born November 1, 1994) is an Israeli-Canadian-American professional baseball right-handed pitcher who is currently a free agent.
See also
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Moral idealist
Ethical idealism, which is also referred to by terms such as moral idealism, principled idealism, and other expressions, is a philosophical framework based on holding onto specifically defined ideals in the context of facing various consequen ...
*
*
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The Mensch on a Bench
''The Mensch on a Bench'' is a Hanukkah-themed book and doll set created in 2012 by Neal Hoffman, inspired by a joke he had made about the 2005 book and doll ''The Elf on the Shelf''. In 2013, the crowdfunding campaign was launched on Kickstarte ...
*
Jewish etiquette
''Minhag'' ( "custom", classical pl. מנהגות, modern pl. מנהגים, ''minhagim'') is an accepted tradition or group of traditions in Judaism. A related concept, '' Nusach'' (נוסח), refers to the traditional order and form of the pra ...