[Ger-Poland-Volhynia] Customs and Traditions of Volhynians

[Günther Böhm]

GVLESS at aol.com schrieb:

>The words were:  (and perhaps not spelled correctly)
>schlamassel
>
Virginia,
this one is correctly spelled and indeed of Yiddish origin but it was 
used for misfortune or mishap. Its source is a connection of the German 
word "schlimm" = grave, serious, bad, and the Hebrew word "mazel" = 
luck, fortune.

>Schlameel  (or schlameil)
>
Schlemihl stems from the German novel by Adalbert  von Chamisso "Peter 
Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte" of 1814. Its origin is again Yiddisch 
(at least Chamisso said so) and actually means "beloved by god" though 
it was used for "unlucky devil" or "walking disaster".

>Kleiner Schlingel
>
Schlingel stems from Middle Lower German "Sluengel" and means "man [boy] 
with time on his hands" or "good for nothing".

The Yiddish words were common through whole Germany though still more in 
its southern regions and primarily used by the humble tradesmen and 
peasants. After a certain decline of Yiddisch words in 19th century, 
their use increased again when lots of Polish and Ukrainian speaking 
workers immigrated to the Westphalian mining and industrial region. 
Typical Yiddish words from the latter period are "maloche" = hard work 
(originally Hebrew "malakha" = labor, work), "Knast" = prison 
(originally Hebrew "knas" = punishment), or the Berlin idiom "dufte" (in 
Westphalia "tofte") = great, smashingly (originally Hebrew "tow" = good).

Guenther
of Hilden, Germany