sphilkus

[Maria]

I was talking to an 80-year-old friend this evening on the phone, and he
used the word "sphilkus." He wasn't sure of the spelling.

It's Jewish/Yiddish (?) and means, he said, having lots of troubles.

So, is the spelling correct? It is still in use these days? I'm not a
stranger to Yiddish terms, but I'd never heard "sphilkus."

Anyone?

[LFS]

Post by Maria
I was talking to an 80-year-old friend this evening on the phone, and he
used the word "sphilkus." He wasn't sure of the spelling.
It's Jewish/Yiddish (?) and means, he said, having lots of troubles.
So, is the spelling correct? It is still in use these days? I'm not a
stranger to Yiddish terms, but I'd never heard "sphilkus."
Anyone?

I would spell it "shpilkes". I think it means literally pins. Certainly
in our family the expression "being on shpilkes" indicates experiencing
uncomfortable anticipation of something.

"Tsores" is the word for lots of troubles.

[T.H. Entity]

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 06:53:47 +0000, LFS

Post by LFS

Post by Maria
I was talking to an 80-year-old friend this evening on the phone, and he
used the word "sphilkus." He wasn't sure of the spelling.
It's Jewish/Yiddish (?) and means, he said, having lots of troubles.
So, is the spelling correct? It is still in use these days? I'm not a
stranger to Yiddish terms, but I'd never heard "sphilkus."
Anyone?

I would spell it "shpilkes". I think it means literally pins. Certainly
in our family the expression "being on shpilkes" indicates experiencing
uncomfortable anticipation of something.
"Tsores" is the word for lots of troubles.

See also: "brontotsores" (huge amounts of troubles); "George Tsores"
(lots of currency troubles).

--
THE

"If you or I use a word inappropriately, that's an error. If a newspaper
uses a word inappropriately, that's a citation source for the dictionaries."
-- Peter Moylan

[Roland Hutchinson]

Post by T.H. Entity
On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 06:53:47 +0000, LFS

Post by LFS
"Tsores" is the word for lots of troubles.

See also: "brontotsores" (huge amounts of troubles)

Oy!

[Buckwheat Soba]

Post by Maria
I was talking to an 80-year-old friend this evening on the phone, and he
used the word "sphilkus." He wasn't sure of the spelling.
It's Jewish/Yiddish (?) and means, he said, having lots of troubles.
So, is the spelling correct? It is still in use these days? I'm not a
stranger to Yiddish terms, but I'd never heard "sphilkus."

I think it was made more widely known in the mid-1980s by Billy Crystal on
_Saturday Night Live_ when he was portraying Sammy Davis Jr. as a cool rat
pack cat who peppered his speech with Yiddishisms. I think that's where I
learned it, anyway. I would have assumed it was spelled "shpilkes".

I think of it as meaning "nerves" and it seems to be used similarly to the
Italian-derived "agita" (which however means 'stomach acid' I believe).

AON, in first grade for a while I took a private bus home from school that
was operated by a company called "Spilka".

[R J Valentine]

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:47:02 +0000 (UTC) Buckwheat Soba <***@privacy.net> wrote:
...
} AON, in first grade for a while I took a private bus home from school that
} was operated by a company called "Spilka".

Uh oh! Now you've gone and wook up Coop.

It does bring back memories of the green Bus 48 (driven by Lou the bus
driver) of the R. K. Davis Bus Company in Huntington. All the buses in
town were private buses. Rumor had it that the competition pretty much
ended after the other companies decided to fix their prices high during
one bidding season, but R. K. Davis wouldn't go along.

Bus 48 was shorter than most, but it could get over hills in snows that
would shut down schools in Maryland for a week. Drivers here can't seem
to cope with that sort of snow.

ObAUE: Is "cope with" a phrasal verb? Do would-be linguists who consider
"put up with" to be a phrasal verb also consider "cope with" to be [done}?

[Skitt]

Post by Buckwheat Soba

Post by Maria
I was talking to an 80-year-old friend this evening on the phone,
and he used the word "sphilkus." He wasn't sure of the spelling.
It's Jewish/Yiddish (?) and means, he said, having lots of troubles.
So, is the spelling correct? It is still in use these days? I'm not a
stranger to Yiddish terms, but I'd never heard "sphilkus."

I think it was made more widely known in the mid-1980s by Billy
Crystal on _Saturday Night Live_ when he was portraying Sammy Davis
Jr. as a cool rat pack cat who peppered his speech with Yiddishisms.
I think that's where I learned it, anyway. I would have assumed it
was spelled "shpilkes".
I think of it as meaning "nerves" and it seems to be used similarly
to the Italian-derived "agita" (which however means 'stomach acid' I
believe).
AON, in first grade for a while I took a private bus home from school
that was operated by a company called "Spilka".

That reminds me that, when I was in the first grade, there was a girl named
Agita. She was the teacher's daughter and the only one who was faster than
I in reading-aloud competition. Ah, for the joys of developing a
competitive nature -- something the communistic regime of those days (Stalin
was the leader) promoted at every turn.