"break <someone's> eggs"

Victor Steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Sun Aug 8 22:45:04 UTC 2010


  I am a couple of generations removed from Yiddish speakers in my
family (contributing to the death of a language, as it were), but I
distinctly recall references to "beitzim", which, if I am not mistaken,
is an Ivritism in Yiddish (one of many that deal with ... uhm ...
sensitive issues). This could be a dialectal difference or simple taboo
layering.

     VS-)

On 8/8/2010 5:47 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
> Yiddish also. I recall hearing about someone's (grandma?) who, on hearing
> that someone had been classified 1A by the draft board (i.e., completely
> qualified to be drafted into the Army) and quipped (imagine a heavy Yiddish
> accent) "How can they take him into the Army with just one ey?" -- lit.
> 'egg', slang 'testicle' (testis? I didn't ask my grandma).
>
> Mark

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list