kvetches? WT?
General August 29th, 2006
My new word for today: kvetch, or it’s variation, kvetches. I’d never heard the word prior to today, and yet Jeremy used a variation of it (kvetchy) in an email I was party to, and Dave Winer used it in a post.
According to The Free Dictionary, kvetch means:
1. A chronic, whining complainer.
2. A nagging complaint
The simple variation in Australian English, so it would seem, would simply be the verb: whinge, or used to describe someone, as in the noun: whinger, or a f*cking whinger as the case may be to create a stronger use of someone who whinges.
Tags: Odd American Words
August 29th, 2006 at 10:24 am
Actually not an American word at all. kvetch is a Yiddish word, where Yiddish is a language that is primarily a combination of Hebrew and German.
Wikipedia Yiddish
August 29th, 2006 at 11:01 am
Fair call Mike, although I’d guess that it’s a Yiddish word that might have some regular usage in North America. It’s not uncommon for example for words from other languages to become common as part of the regional or national dialect, such as some Aboriginal words have regular usage in Australia.
August 30th, 2006 at 1:09 am
Well I knew it because I’m Jewish
August 30th, 2006 at 4:41 am
That explains Dave Winer as well Mike. Now you’ll need to use it in a podcast so I can listen and actually work out how it’s pronounced
August 30th, 2006 at 8:43 am
It’s pronounced just like it’s spelled.
Kvetch. If anything, you sort of blend the K and the v together.