meshug(an)a

[Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]

Katherine Rossner <ookpik at MINDSPRING.COM> writes:

>>>>>
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.
<<<<<

Hmmm. I think "meshugana", sometimes spelled "meshuggener", is the noun of
person (as distinct from the abstract noun "mishigas" /mi sh@ 'gas/),
epicene, and "meshuga" (accent on 2nd syll) is the adj. ... I just checked
with a co-worker whose Yiddish, while not fluent, is much better than mine
(1 generation closer to L1, I think), and she concurs.

   Mark A. Mandel : Dragon Systems, a Lernout & Hauspie company
 Mark_Mandel at dragonsys.com : Sr. Linguist & Mgr. of Acoustic Data
 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02460, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com
                     (speaking for myself)