"No! Nein! Ningelschnook!"

April 13, 2009 2:05 PM

Ningelschnook?

In a book I read as a child a character says, "No! Nein! Ningelschnook!"

My brother and I would say that phrase to each other fairly regularly to mean an emphatic no. Does the word 'ningelschnook', uh, exist? I mean outside of that book?

This would have been in the early '80s. There is a glimmer of Roald Dahl in my mind about this word/phrase, but I am not sure if that is just wishful thinking (Roald Dahl books being widely enough read to give good odds for recognition). Also no idea if I am spelling it correctly. I've Googled various spellings to no avail.

Also I guess it is possible that we pronounced it wrong then and so misremembered a completely different word.

Any leads?

posted by dirtdirt to writing & language (8 comments total)

based on the fact that google finds ONLY this one hit (that would be metafilter), I'm guessing it is not a word.
posted by HuronBob at 2:32 PM on April 13

Or else you're not spelling it right.
posted by box at 2:39 PM on April 13

Would "not enough!" make sense in context? Is it possible you're transposing the sounds, and it's "nicht genug!"?
posted by oaf at 3:01 PM on April 13

The American Heritage dictionary says that "schnook" is an American word derived from Yiddish "shnuk", originally from Lithuanian "snukis".

It ain't German at all.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 3:07 PM on April 13

... it really sounds Yiddish, but if it's a Yiddish word, it's an obscure one.

'Schnook' means a fool or a dope, somebody easily taken advantage of, by the way. But I've never heard and can't find "ningel" (not that I know that much Yiddish, but I had a friend once who spoke it.) Of course, the Yiddish are great at twisting up old words into new words, so it may be one of those; or it may be a corruption of a Yiddish word.
posted by koeselitz at 4:14 PM on April 13

'Niggun' is a celebratory song, but I don't think that fits.
posted by koeselitz at 4:15 PM on April 13

It could be any language. It's pretty common to see a phrase like: No! Nein! Nyet! Nix! And it's just a series of synonyms for no. (google random words for no together)
posted by judge.mentok.the.mindtaker at 4:36 PM on April 13

Well... for whatever it's worth, Ningel and Schnook are both German surnames.
posted by koeselitz at 9:51 PM on April 13