Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Wondrous Words Wednesday

Bermudaonion asks you to share new words that you have learned during your reading adventures in the last week. Feel free to join in the fun!

I've been learning a few interesting Yiddish words while reading an American Family by Peter Lefcourt:

Golem:  Jewish Folklore, a figure artificially constructed in the form of a human being and endowed with life.

Here is how golem was used on page 86:
And to people who were both old and Jewish he became a sort of golem, returned to earth to avenge two thousand years worth of persecution and indignity. 

Tsuris:  (Yiddish) aggravating trouble.

Here is how tsuris was used on page 98:
And the one thing that Meyer Perl did not want at this stage of his life was tsuris

This is a fun book to read so far as the author does a wonderful job of setting up the time period.  He creates some great pictures for us to imagine! 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

A new word for me, interesting.

http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2012/06/wondrous-words-wednesday_20.html

bermudaonion said...

I've heard golem before - there are actually golems in an online game I play - but tsuris is new to me.

Libby said...

Hi Jo Jo!

I knew golem - but God knows where I heard it!

I have never heard of tsuris before though. Thanks for sharing :)

Alyce said...

I'm not familiar with a lot of Yiddish words. I hadn't heard of tsuris before.