Dictionary of Yiddish Idioms

This dictionary contains mainly idioms, which are combinations of words of an idiomatic nature and have an adopted, metaphorical meaning.

Some are commonly used expressions, and are not necessarily idiomatic or metaphorical.

These second kind of expressions which are termed "collocations" in linguistic parlance have been included only in cases where they do not appear in existing dictionaries of Yiddish.

This dictionary offers four options for the user to find the required expressions:

1. By alphabetic order;

2. By alphabetized lists of the equivalent expressions in Hebrew, English and Russian;

3. By a list of the nouns and numerals that appear in the Yiddish expressions;

4. By a subject index.

The alphabetized lists of equivalent expressions in Hebrew, English and Russian enable the dictionary to be used in two directions – Yiddish to Other Languages and Other Languages of Yiddish.

The expressions in the dictionary are of three types:

1. Expressions which reflect the everyday life of the Jews of Eastern Europe (food, occupations, etc.):

2. Expressions associated with Jewish customs and religious life:

3. Loan translations (literal translations of expressions from other languages):