Misplaced Pages

Yenta: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 23:42, 29 September 2019 editAnomieBOT (talk | contribs)Bots6,574,683 editsm Dating maintenance tags: {{Cn}}← Previous edit Revision as of 16:19, 30 September 2019 edit undoArjayay (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, Pending changes reviewers, Rollbackers628,064 editsm Duplicate word removedNext edit →
Line 2: Line 2:
'''Yenta''' or '''Yente''' ({{lang-yi|יענטע}}) is a ] women's given name. It is a variant form of the name ''Yentl'', which ultimately is thought to be derived from the Italian word ''gentile'', meaning 'noble' or 'refined'.<ref name="forverts">https://forward.com/sisterhood/171019/yentas-real-yiddish-history/</ref><ref>https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=yenta</ref> The name has entered ]—i.e., become a Yiddish loanword in Jewish varieties of English—as a word referring to a woman who is a gossip or a busybody. '''Yenta''' or '''Yente''' ({{lang-yi|יענטע}}) is a ] women's given name. It is a variant form of the name ''Yentl'', which ultimately is thought to be derived from the Italian word ''gentile'', meaning 'noble' or 'refined'.<ref name="forverts">https://forward.com/sisterhood/171019/yentas-real-yiddish-history/</ref><ref>https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=yenta</ref> The name has entered ]—i.e., become a Yiddish loanword in Jewish varieties of English—as a word referring to a woman who is a gossip or a busybody.


The use of ''yenta'' as a word for 'busybody' originated in the age of Yiddish theater. In the 1920s and 1930s the humorist Jacob Adler, writing under the pen name B. Kovner for '']'', wrote a series of comic sketches featuring the character Yente Telebende, a henpecking wife. The popularity of the character led to the the name developing its colloquial sense of 'a gossip'.<ref name="forverts" /> The use of ''yenta'' as a word for 'busybody' originated in the age of Yiddish theater. In the 1920s and 1930s the humorist Jacob Adler, writing under the pen name B. Kovner for '']'', wrote a series of comic sketches featuring the character Yente Telebende, a henpecking wife. The popularity of the character led to the name developing its colloquial sense of 'a gossip'.<ref name="forverts" />


There is{{cn|date=September 2019}} a mistaken belief that the word for a Jewish ] is ''yenta'' or ''yente''. In reality a Jewish matchmaker is called a '']'' (שדכן). The origin of this error is the 1964 musical '']'', in which a character named Yente serves as the matchmaker for the village of Anatevka. There is{{cn|date=September 2019}} a mistaken belief that the word for a Jewish ] is ''yenta'' or ''yente''. In reality a Jewish matchmaker is called a '']'' (שדכן). The origin of this error is the 1964 musical '']'', in which a character named Yente serves as the matchmaker for the village of Anatevka.

Revision as of 16:19, 30 September 2019

Yenta or Yente (Template:Lang-yi) is a Yiddish women's given name. It is a variant form of the name Yentl, which ultimately is thought to be derived from the Italian word gentile, meaning 'noble' or 'refined'. The name has entered Yinglish—i.e., become a Yiddish loanword in Jewish varieties of English—as a word referring to a woman who is a gossip or a busybody.

The use of yenta as a word for 'busybody' originated in the age of Yiddish theater. In the 1920s and 1930s the humorist Jacob Adler, writing under the pen name B. Kovner for The Jewish Daily Forward, wrote a series of comic sketches featuring the character Yente Telebende, a henpecking wife. The popularity of the character led to the name developing its colloquial sense of 'a gossip'.

There is a mistaken belief that the word for a Jewish matchmaker is yenta or yente. In reality a Jewish matchmaker is called a shadchan (שדכן). The origin of this error is the 1964 musical Fiddler on the Roof, in which a character named Yente serves as the matchmaker for the village of Anatevka.

Yenta was the name of an Israeli spy agency in the 1960s TV sitcom Get Smart, in an episode titled 'The Man from Yenta'. In a different sitcom named after the main family, The Goldbergs, the group of women surrounding mother, Beverly Goldberg, call themselves "Frentas" a combination of the word "Friends" and "Yentas".

The name has also been used for:

  • The Linux CardBus controller, which brings together Cardbus cards with the rest of the computer
  • The name of a highly available key-value store for Perl

See also

References

  1. ^ https://forward.com/sisterhood/171019/yentas-real-yiddish-history/
  2. https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=yenta
  3. http://blogs.perl.org/users/jaw/2011/01/yenta---a-highly-available-key-value-store.html
Stub icon

This Yiddish language-related article is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

Categories: