sitzfleish (was ?)

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 01/16/2003 11:00:20 PM Eastern Standard Time,
hstahlke at WORLDNET.ATT.NET writes:

> We used the term Sitzfleisch as a euphemism for ass when I was in prep
>  school back in the '50s at Concordia College in Milwaukee.  This very
German
>  Missouri Synod Lutheran institution didn't have much Yiddish influence.
        <snip>
>  #Mark's use of 'Sitzfleisch' made me think back (waaaay back) to my days of
>  #studying German.  Sitting meat/skin? what is that? and how does that
relate
>  #to our Barry?
>
>  Actually I've always thought of it as being as much Yiddish as German,
>  though I spelled it as German (without the capital letter). ... Not in
>  Rosten's _Joy of Yiddish_ ... not in AHD4 ... Found it in Weinreich's
>  Y/E dictionary:
>
>  zitsflaysh [my translit -- MAM] : perseverance (humorous)
>
>  My wife's recollection of its use in Yiddish (her parents were native
>  speakers) is that when it was applied to a child, it often referred to a
>  behavior of pattern of being unable to sit still, constantly fidgeting,
>  standing up, moving around, etc. "Nowadays we diagnose it as ADHD."

Herbert Tarr _The Conversion of Chaplain Cohen_ New York: Avon, 1963, no
ISBN, beginning of chapter 7

"Classes at Chaplain School continued unabated,  but the interest of the
chaplains did not.  By the middle of January, with almost a month still
remaining till the end of the course, the men were growing restless.  Most of
them, veterans of a minimum of seven years of higher education, were weary by
now of any additional schooling; their _sitzfleisch_ had clearly been worn to
the bone."

     - Jim Landau