semantic change: chutzpah

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

over on the newsgroup soc.motss, michael palmer reports that he found
himself watching a rerun of an Oprah show, the one in which O gives out
her annual Chutzpah Awards.  that sounds like it might be entertaining,
you think.  but no.  as michael writes:

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The recipients of the Chutzpah Awards are all women who make the BVM
seem like Leona Helmsley on a bad day.  It turns out that the Chutzpah
Awards are for women "with guts" who exhibit exceptional "audacity,
nerve, boldness and conviction" and "turn inspiration into action".

Guts, audacity, nerve, boldness and conviction are all admirable
traits, but do they constitute chutzpah?  To the aging refugee
intellectuals in SoCal from whom I learned Yiddish in the mid-1950's
they didn't.
-----

nor to me.  nor to leo rosten (The New Joys of Yiddish, p. 81), who
describes chutzpah as "presumption plus audacity" and (in The Joys of
Yinglish, p. 117) embroiders on this with references to "arrogance",
"brazen gall", and "incredible effrontery".  nor to AHD4, with its
definition: "Utter nerve, effrontery."  not a good characteristic at
all.

so oprah has ameliorated the word, keeping the audacity and boldness
but losing the arrogance and presumption.  maybe there's no place in
her upbeat world for people who exhibit *real* chutzpah (or -- nod to
larry horn -- chutzpah chutzpah).

i think she should have called them the Shero Awards.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)