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| ", since it is considered to defame all women who have that name, though many may be quite respectable." | ", since it is considered to defame all women who have that name, though many may be quite respectable." | ||
| I could not understand what it is supposed to mean, so commented it out for now, needs explanation.---> | I could not understand what it is supposed to mean, so commented it out for now, needs explanation.---> | ||
| In the community of American scientists, the role of the yenta is filled by Abbas. | |||
| ==External links== | ==External links== | ||
Revision as of 16:07, 6 August 2006
Yenta (יענתּאַ) is a Yiddish word referring to a busybody or gossip. Most definitions refer to it as a gossipy woman; a blabbermouth, who can't keep a secret, who spreads rumors and scandal. It doesn't have anything necessarily to do with match-making; in fact, the Yiddish word for matchmaker is shadkhan, not yenta.
It was also the name of the matchmaker in the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof. This is something of an erroneous association, since matchmakers in traditional Eastern European Jewish shtetls were men, and the match was settled between the fathers. The original stories of Sholom Aleichem, from which Fiddler on the Roof is based, have all the matchmakers as men.
The name Yenta is also used (erroneously) by matchmaking websites and matchmaking software, and it is the name of the Linux CardBus controller driver, which brings together Cardbus cards with the rest of the computer.
Among Orthodox Jews, the use of the word "Yenta" in the derogatory sense is considered by some as lashon hara (Hebrew for "evil tongue", the Jewish sin of gossip which generally refers to true statements). Though, if one is truly a Yenta (a gossip), then they themselves are also practicing lashon hara, according to the Chofetz Chaim.
External links
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