influence of russian on AE

[Victoria Neufeldt]

Whatever its origin in Yiddish, the word 'nudnik' also definitely exists as
a facetious ref to someone who is naked -- could even just be a child who's
running around without clothes ("he's a little nudnik").  Probably
originates as a misinterpretation of the word as heard or seen in English.

Victoria
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf
> Of Stephanie Hysmith
> Sent: Thursday, February 10, 2000 8:31 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: influence of russian on AE
>
>
> I think this is based on Yiddish and maybe blended with the Russian suffix
> -nik for effect. Perhaps it came out around the same era as
> 'beatnik,' too.
> I doubt it has to do with nudism. Rather I would guess it refers to a
> 'nudge.' /nUj/ This is someone who's pesters you, keeps after you for
> details or whatever. If someone has a Yiddish dictionary handy, please
> correct me.
>
> Isn't there also a word "nudnik" which I would understand as nude
> person or
> >someone involved with nudism?  If so, this would probably be
> Yiddish rather
> >than Russian. I don't see anything about the suffix "-nik" in DARE.  It
> >became popular with "Sputnik."
>