Something something little bird
March 12, 2011 7:16 PM Subscribe
In Boardwalk Empire, episode 3, what's the incredibly obscene Yiddish phrase used by the dying gangster?
I can hear '[...] dayn bubbe mit dayn feygel[...]' – and the translation given is "go fuck your grandmother with your little faggot penis". Bonus question: where did the screenwriter Margaret Nagle get it from?
I can hear '[...] dayn bubbe mit dayn feygel[...]' – and the translation given is "go fuck your grandmother with your little faggot penis". Bonus question: where did the screenwriter Margaret Nagle get it from?
Based on my limited knowledge of yiddish, which is mostly cusswords and nicknames my grandparents called me, the translation is right. It's something something your grandmother with your gay something.
Bonus question: where did the screenwriter Margaret Nagle get it from?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. It's a perfectly good dirty yiddish insult.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:19 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
Bonus question: where did the screenwriter Margaret Nagle get it from?
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. It's a perfectly good dirty yiddish insult.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:19 PM on March 12, 2011 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: To clarify: I want a transliteration of the Yiddish that's spoken, rather than a translation: the one I gave is given by characters in the episode itself. I managed to find a Youtube link for non-Boardwalk Empire watchers.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. It's a perfectly good dirty yiddish insult.
Sure, but is it current in the modern Yiddish speaking world? I'm guessing it isn't in Kiryas Joel, or down the road from where I live in the Manchester community.
posted by topynate at 6:09 AM on March 13, 2011
I'm not entirely sure what you mean. It's a perfectly good dirty yiddish insult.
Sure, but is it current in the modern Yiddish speaking world? I'm guessing it isn't in Kiryas Joel, or down the road from where I live in the Manchester community.
posted by topynate at 6:09 AM on March 13, 2011
Best answer: Gey shtip dayn bobe mit dayn feygldike shmekele.
posted by gubo at 6:44 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by gubo at 6:44 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thanks gubo! I see that shmekele and shtip (shtup?) are pretty common even as isolated Yiddishisms, although I've never heard shmekele before.
posted by topynate at 6:55 AM on March 13, 2011
posted by topynate at 6:55 AM on March 13, 2011
Best answer: Shmekele comes from adding the diminiutive ending "-eleh" to the more well-known word shmuck. Thus rendering it smaller.
posted by Mchelly at 7:09 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Mchelly at 7:09 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Sure, but is it current in the modern Yiddish speaking world? I'm guessing it isn't in Kiryas Joel, or down the road from where I live in the Manchester community.
Sure it would be. It's just a command, not an idiomatic sentence or anything.
Thanks gubo! I see that shmekele and shtip (shtup?) are pretty common even as isolated Yiddishisms, although I've never heard shmekele before.
Yeah. Here in the east coast US, I've only ever heard/seen the verb schtup pronounced and transliterated with a u, not an i. But Yiddish can be a bit slippery like that since it doesn't use a Roman alphabet. Faygeleh is definitely still in common usage, as my mother was reminded by our rabbi when she almost made that my Jewish name (she'd forgotten the other connotation).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:17 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
Sure it would be. It's just a command, not an idiomatic sentence or anything.
Thanks gubo! I see that shmekele and shtip (shtup?) are pretty common even as isolated Yiddishisms, although I've never heard shmekele before.
Yeah. Here in the east coast US, I've only ever heard/seen the verb schtup pronounced and transliterated with a u, not an i. But Yiddish can be a bit slippery like that since it doesn't use a Roman alphabet. Faygeleh is definitely still in common usage, as my mother was reminded by our rabbi when she almost made that my Jewish name (she'd forgotten the other connotation).
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 9:17 AM on March 13, 2011 [1 favorite]
> I've only ever heard/seen the verb schtup pronounced and transliterated with a u, not an i.
It's a dialect thing; Polish (poylisher) and Lithuanian (litvisher), the two main varieties of Eastern European Yiddish, have very different vowels.
posted by languagehat at 5:22 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
It's a dialect thing; Polish (poylisher) and Lithuanian (litvisher), the two main varieties of Eastern European Yiddish, have very different vowels.
posted by languagehat at 5:22 PM on March 13, 2011 [2 favorites]
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posted by Ideefixe at 8:02 PM on March 12, 2011