- yenta
- noun Etymology: Yiddish yente, from the name Yente Date: 1923 one that meddles; also blabbermouth, gossip
New Collegiate Dictionary. 2001.
yenta
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Yenta — (pronounced IPA|) is a Yiddish female name which is still in use. In the age of Yiddish theater, it started referring to a or . The word has since become Yinglish (a Yiddish loanword in American Jewish English).*It was also the name of the… … Wikipedia
yenta — (n.) gossip, busybody, 1923, from Yente Telebende, comic strip gossip in 1920s 30s writing of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pen name of Jacob Adler) in the Jewish Daily Forward. It was a common Yiddish fem. proper name, altered from Yentl … Etymology dictionary
yenta — or yente [yen′tə] n. [< Yente Telebende, name of a comic gossip in writings (1920s & 1930s) of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pseud. of Jacob Adler)] Slang a woman gossip or busybody … English World dictionary
yenta — [“jenta] n. a gossip, usually a woman. (Regarded as Yiddish.) □ She can be such a yenta when she’s got news. □ Tracy is a yenta if ever there was one … Dictionary of American slang and colloquial expressions
yenta — n a shrewish woman, a gossip or crone. The word is a middle European Jewish woman s name or title (probably related to forms of the word gentile ). The yenta became a comic figure in Jewish folklore, particularly in the American Yiddish theatre… … Contemporary slang
yenta — (YEN tah) [Yiddish] A woman who gossips excessively; a busybody; a nosy, gossipy woman. By extension, any obsessive talker; a gossip. Smith said Gretzky is a “hockey yenta” who likes to keep informed of rumors and scuttlebutt through his… … Dictionary of foreign words and phrases
yenta — /yen teuh/, n. Slang. a person, esp. a woman, who is a busybody or gossip. [1930 35; < Yiddish yente, orig. a female personal name, earlier Yentl OIt; cf. It gentile kind, amiable, orig., noble, highborn; see GENTLE] * * * … Universalium
yenta — noun a) a woman who meddles in the business of others; a busybody; a woman gossip; a gossipmonger b) a matchmaker; a woman who specializes in finding spouses … Wiktionary
yenta — Synonyms and related words: Paul Pry, Peeping Tom, a tale bearing animal, backseat driver, busybody, eavesdropper, gossip, gossip columnist, gossiper, gossipmonger, inquirer, inquisitive, inquisitor, intermeddler, kibitzer, meddler, newsmonger,… … Moby Thesaurus
yenta — (Roget s Thesaurus II) noun Slang. A person habitually engaged in idle talk about others: blab, gossip, gossiper, gossip monger, newsmonger, rumormonger, scandalmonger, tabby, talebearer, taleteller, tattle, tattler, tattletale, telltale,… … English dictionary for students
