kvetch
Pronunciations
kvetch | (kvetch) | listen |
Definitions
v. "To chronically complain or gripe to others over minor issues." (JPS)
Example Sentences
"All my 90 year old grandmother does is kvetch about not being able to do the things she used to do."
Languages of Origin
- Yiddish
Etymology
קװעטשן kvetshn 'to press, squeeze, pinch' (קװעטשן זיך kvetshn zikh 'to strain'), verbal stem is קװעטש kvetsh
- Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements
- Older: Jews who are middle-aged and older
- Non-Jews: (words that have spread outside of Jewish networks)
- Ashkenazim: Jews with Ashkenazi heritage
- View More
- North America
- Great Britain
- South Africa
- Australia / New Zealand
- View More
- 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 JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
Who Uses This
Regions
Dictionaries
Notes
The meaning of the J-E word differs from the original Yiddish (see Etymology).
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