Forward.com

Just Say ‘Nu’?: Old AgeThe idea that age alone is enough to make you important is fundamental to traditional Jewish life, and people are always wanting to know how old you are, especially if you’re unmarried.…Read more

Latrine Detail‘Inter faeces et urinam nascimur,” wrote Saint Augustine, who just became the first Church Father ever quoted in a guide to Yiddish conversation. “We are born between feces and urine,” he says, so let’s not get carried away with ourselves; the birth canal through which all of us enter this world is located between the anus and the urethra, and we emerge from the womb as mired in physical filth as we are in original sin.…Read more

Nu!Among the best-known words in the language, nu is sometimes heard in English these days, but rarely among non-Jews and never with the vast range of meaning that it can have in Yiddish. Things have changed considerably since 1958 or ’59 when I went tearing out of the room where I’d been watching “December Bride” in order to inform my mother that Pete Porter, one of the regular characters, had to be Jewish. Pete was played by Harry Morgan (who was also Bill Gannon on Dragnet and Colonel Potter on “MASH”), and anyone who’s seen the show will remember that its characters were among the most irredeemably goyish in an era of irredeemably *goyisheh sitcoms. My mother, ever the diplomat, asked me how I knew. “Er hot nor voos gezugt nu,” I told her. “He just said nu.” My mother didn’t miss a beat. “Iz nu?” she asked, as if to say, “And what? He shouldn’t say nu?”…Read more

Just Say ‘Nu?’: How Are You, cont’d.The usual responses to general questions about your welfare are……Read more

Seasonal GreetingsIn our last installment, we looked at the most common of all Yiddish greetings, shoolem alaykhem, and its inevitable response, alaykhem shoolem. As with virtually all Yiddish greetings, alaykhem shoolem is often, though not inevitably, followed by a challenge in the form of nu, which has a basic meaning of “so” or “well,” as if to say, “Now that we’ve got the hellos out of the way, what have you got to say for yourself? Nu — give some account of your activities, justify your presence on this planet.” It is the prelude to “How are you?” or “What’s doing?”…Read more