Kvetch

[Dr. Goodword]

• kvetch •

Pronunciation: kvech • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, noun

Meaning: To gripe, complain, whine persistently.

Notes: Here is yet another gift from Yiddish, where it means "to talk tediously at great length". The verb may be used as a noun synonymous with kvetcher, which has only been around since 1968. It also comes with an adjective, kvetchy, meaning "given to kvetching".

In Play: This word has a light-hearted, even comic touch, capitalized on in the title of Michael Wex's 2005 bestseller Born to Kvetch. Otherwise, we hear it in expressions like this: "People love to kvetch about taxes and politics."

Word History: Yiddish derived today's Good Word from the verb kvetshen "to pinch, squeeze, press", from the extended sense of squeezing the last drop out of something. This word was taken from German quetschen "to squeeze, crush, bruise", with an ancient English cousin quest "to crush" (up to the 17th century), and a Modern Dutch cousin kwetsen "to hurt, wound, offend". This word descended from PIE gwedh- "to push, hit, harm", which survived in only a few contemporary IE languages, like Latvian graut "destroy, demolish, thrash", Lithuanian gesti "to perish", and the Dutch and German words above. We find its remains in a few ancient languages, like Sanskrit gandh- "bump, poke, injure", and ancient Greek dennos "reproach". (Let's not give Arnaldo Mandel anything to kvetch about but thank him for suggesting today's rather funny Good Word.)

[Slava]

I do like how languages have fun coincidences at times. Take that Lithuanian gesti, "to perish", and that English word that it resembles but has nothing to do with; gestate.

[Debbymoge]

The verb may be used as a noun synonymous with kvetcher, which has only been around since 1968.

Am I correct in reading this to mean that "kvetcher" has only been around since 1968?

As ever, thanks for the clarification in advance...
Debby

[Slava]

It looks like kvetch itself got widely accepted into English only in the 60s, too.

[Debbymoge]

Oh! really?
Despite my mother's avoidance of all things culinary and linguistic from her early years until one of my elder sisters went to Brandeis, kvetch was in use often in our house.
There were other words and phrases that didn't break through till cousins began having bar mitzvahs (no bat mitzvahs then). One of the first I ran into was "goy", followed shortly by "shicksa".
The cousins used to split nearly 50/50 in their view of us. Half were telling us to quit pretending and act like Jews, the other half telling us to quit pretending and admit to being "shicksa".