landsman

Definitions

• n. Someone who comes from the same or nearby hometown, especially if one or both of you no longer lives there and all the more so if one or both now live far away from home, in which case an entire region (e.g., metro NY) or country e.g., Poland) may be the point of connection.
  

Example Sentences

• "Our great-grandfathers were landsmen."
  

• "B'emet (really), you're from Scarsdale? Well then we're landsmen -- I'm from Teaneck!" (said in Florida)
  

Languages of Origin

• Yiddish

Etymology

• לאַנדסמאַן landsman (plural לאַנדסלײַט landslayt)
  

Who Uses This

• Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
• Older: Jews who are middle-aged and older
• Ashkenazim: Jews with Ashkenazi heritage

Regions

• North America

Dictionaries

• The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
• The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
• Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).

Alternative Spellings

landsmen