batlan

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Pronunciations

batlan (BAHT-lin) listen

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Definitions

  • n. An unemployed or lazy person.

  • n. A misfit.

  • n. A naive person.

Example Sentences

  • "That doctor treated me like a batlen and won't tell me a thing!" (Rosten)

  • "The Talmud says that every Jewish community must contain ten batlonim—that is, ten men who, since they do not work, can devote all their time to prayer and study." (Rosten)

  • "If you ask me, the whole board should resign—they're a bunch of batlanim." (Glinert)

  • "They didn't let him stay in the Yeshiva because he was, plain and poshut, a batlan." (Weiser)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • TH בַּטְלָן⁩ > Y בטלן batlen

      • Who Uses This

      • Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)
      • Ashkenazim: Jews with Ashkenazi heritage

      Regions

      • North America

      Dictionaries

      • The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
      • Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
      • Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).
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      Alternative Spellings

      batlen, botlan, botlen, batlanim, batlonim, batlonem

Notes

  • plural: 'batlanim'

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