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We're referring to English here, not German; the word is a "false friend" | 428 comments | Create New Account

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We're referring to English here, not German; the word is a "false friend"

Authored by: PJ on Wednesday, June 19 2013 @ 12:45 AM EDT

It's a Yiddish word, and it means a real
human, with good qualities. Sigmund Freud
wrote a book once about Jewish humor, and
he tells about two Jewish men who are walking
in the country and they get near to the border
of Germany, and a German soldier shoots at them.
One of them calls out, "What's wrong with you?
Can't you see it's a mensch?"

Meaning, he thinks the soldier can't see them
clearly and thinks they are animals. The joke
is that the fellow thinks if the soldier could
see they are humans, he'd never shoot, whereas
in reality the soldier was trying to kill them.

Which brings up another Jewish saying that when
you are in love, the whole world is Jewish.

So, mensch has all those overtones. And I can
authoritatively state that this is the meaning
I had in mind when I used the word, which is
now an American word too.

[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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