maideleh

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Pronunciations

maideleh (MAY-deh-leh) listen

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Definitions

  • n. An unmarried woman; little girl.

Example Sentences

  • "As a child I would enter with my mother and an older man would lean over the counter and ask the meydele if she would like a shtikel kabana, his voice resonant with the singsong qualities of a native Yiddish speaker." (The Jews of Ukraine: Baal Shem Tov to Zelensky: Jewish Quarterly 251 edited by Jonathan Pearlman)

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Languages of Origin

  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • מיידעלע‎ meydele, iminutive of מויד moyd

      • Who Uses This

      • Older: Jews who are middle-aged and older
      • Ashkenazim: Jews with Ashkenazi heritage

      Regions

      • North America

      Dictionaries

      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).

      Alternative Spellings

      maydeleh, meydeleh, maidele, maydele, meydele, maideleh, maidele, meideleh, meidele, meydele, meydeleh

Notes

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