‘Trumpenik’
The Donald and Il Duce: A more than passing resemblance?
Hearing the name of Donald Trump, the blowhard candidate, makes me think of a Yiddish word, trumpenik, that my grandfather would use from time to time about someone he regarded as a lowlife.
I looked it up online and found this (http://bit.ly/1pvJWXB) in connection with the word trombenik, a reasonable alternative spelling of what I recall hearing as trumpenik:
“All my [Bert Stratton’s] Yiddish dictionaries say ‘trombenik’ means ‘lazy person, ne’er-do-well.’ But Leo Rosten and Arthur Naiman add the meaning ‘boastful loudmouth,’ and say the word is derived from the Polish for a ‘blower of a horn or trumpet.’ ”
As applied to The Donald, “boastful loudmouth” sounds about right, although pretty mild. When I see snippets of him on TV, his facial expression often reminds me of newsreel footage of a smug Benito Mussolini on the balcony during a harangue to the crowd below (www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPWNwtDsrQo; starting at about the 1:45-minute mark).
Howard, I’m a sucker for Yiddish words, this one is pure genius! Mussolini was definitely a trumpenik. I can’t make myself watch him on YouTube, I’m familiar with his lousy gimmicks from old documentaries on Italian TV. You wrote this in 2016, and it’s still relevant now, and oh so scary.
Tell me, please, the Yiddish term for “Let’s stay hopeful and active, despite all this chaos.”
De mazzel!
Portia
PS: “De mazzel” is Amsterdam dialect that means “Cheers, regards”, and it’s likely derived from “Mazel tov!”, brought in by the many Jewish immigrants to the city.
Thank you, Portia. I apologize for the tardy response to your kind comment. I just spotted it! Greatly appreciated!