semantic change: chutzpah

[Tom Kysilko]

Coincidentally, on another listserve I subscribe to I found, just today,
the semantics of "chutzpah" shifting in a different direction in this
message from a 38-ish male of unknown ethnicity.
 >>>>>
Growing up here [NYC], I was exposed at a pretty young age to agressive
in-your-face expression. The city culture is definitely one that welcomes
unvarnished opinons. Coming to Minnesota, it was hard to figure out what
people were thinking becuase they hardly ever just came out and told you.
It was considered impolite.

It's possible that transplants to the city become overzealous converts to
obnoxiousness, but it's hard to top a New York City cop or a pastrami
cutter at Katz's Deli for pure unadulterated chutzpah.
<<<<<
Obnoxious directness is not my idea of chutzpah, [Rosten's anecdote of the
man who kills both his parents and pleads in court for mercy because he is
an orphan illustrates my idea of chutzpah] but is it becoming a common
understanding of the term?

--Tom Kysilko

At 7/8/2004 10:41 AM -0700, Arnold M. Zwicky wrote:
>but no.  as michael writes:
>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.



   Tom Kysilko        Practical Data Services
   pds at visi.com       Saint Paul MN USA
           http://www.visi.com/~pds