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Revision as of 21:44, 6 August 2006 by Lionel Elie Mamane (talk | contribs) (Correct link to shadchan)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)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 shadchan, 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.
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