Motor City; Michigander; Michigas

Katherine Rossner ookpik at MINDSPRING.COM
Fri Jul 14 13:54:11 UTC 2000


Enid Pearsons wrote:

> Meshugana is the sorta nicely crazy person (another noun), and
> meshuga is the adjective you were looking for.

Actually, if I might nitpick, the adjective has male and female forms.  I forget which one meshuga/meshuggeh/etc. is; I think meshugana is the other form (as well as the noun).  But I can never remember exactly.

My very limited knowledge of Yiddish has in this matter been further confused by the chairman of the language department at my high school,  a black man fluent many languages including Yiddish who delighted in "translating" his favorite words into assorted other languages.  I still remember him coming into my Spanish class and saying "Meshugenaire!  Meshugenaire!" (that being, of course, his French translation).

Katherine Rossner
--
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, profundum viditur.



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