Talk:Mensch

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--CopyToWiktionaryBot 11:54, 7 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Looking to the German Wikipedia

The Mensch article over at the German Wikipedia seems not to acknowledge that Mensch is a Jiddisch word. Isn't that a little suspect? __meco 16:08, 28 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, but it could be due to mere ignorance, not necessarily prejudice. Erudil 17:08, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

The German Mensch article is the equivalent of Human, and neither of both focuses on etymology. I'm not sure where exactly it should be mentioned anyway, since the Yiddish (and, apparently, American) meaning of the word is virtually unknown among Germans. 80.108.198.141 23:59, 19 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it is known in Norwegian, which is both culturally and linguistically somewhat close to German language and culture. __meco 00:12, 20 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

So what does it mean in Norwegian? (By the way, Norwegian is a North Germanic language, closely but not very closely related to German. German, along with Dutch, Frisian, and English, is a West Germanic language.)

*siiiiiighs* I went through 13 years of school in Germany and never heard of it. It's not something that comes up often in American pop songs, and at least in my experience the English taught at school is mostly British/Commonwealth English.

I changed the link from this article to the German disambiguation page, since, as the anonymous commenter above said, the "homo sapiens" article didn't correspond to this article here, and added an explanation of the Yiddish/AE meaning. Anke 19:24, 22 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

It would not be feasible for the German Wikipedia to mention every German word that is also a Yiddish word, since Yiddish is derived from German. According to the Urban Dictionary, which granted is not particularly scholarly, the word "mensch", as I suspected, has the same primary meaning in Yiddish that it has in German, i.e., "human being." Yiddish also gives it a 2nd, figurative meaning, and that is the one that is borrowed into English.

I also went to college in Germany, and I heard the word used frequently, but only to mean "human."

Well "Menschlichkeit" and "Unmensch" are very common in Standard German! And there are idiomatic expressions like "Man ist Mensch." or "Sei kein Unmensch!". I doubt that Yiddish and German interpretation are so different, it's the English interpretation emphasizing a special connotation. Anyway I'm no expert of Yiddish but I doubt that some other contributors here are! --Popolfi (talk) 11:43, 2 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A little check in German Wikipedia shows that "Menschlichkeit" is etymologically just the translation of the 2000 year old philosophical concept of humanitas by Cicero !!! --Popolfi (talk) 18:13, 4 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Huh? why is the parenthetical taking center stage?

Mentch is a YIDDISH word with a certain meaning that has since become popular in English. The fact that the word's etymological roots trace to the German is wholly irrelevant. How about tracing it back further through the word's earlier incarnations? How's about providing a history lesson on the letter 'M' - which is required in order to spell the word 'mentch'? I realize that I'm showing little mentchlichkeit in the manner in which I'm writing this but when you take a beautiful JEWISH concept and paint it in a way that at first blush appears to credit GERMANS, I think I have a right to be disgusted. If anything we see within this word an example of how vastly different unzere are from yenem, The word most literally simply means "man" but the Germans found inspiration within it for the uber-mentch who can kill, enslave and exploit all others for his own uber self, while MY ancestors decided to define the word "Man" as one who is caring and thoughtful about others.

Anu ameilim v'heim ameilim... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.206.180.16 (talk) 05:24, 18 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The word is a German word. Yiddish is mostly based on German. You cannot separate the two, your racism not withstanding. It is also worth noting that the word 'mensch' in German, does not simply mean 'Man', as there are other words to that affect, but specifically with the connotations of a person. This would be at odds with how the Nazis considered Jews, and is just one example of their corrupting a previous German sentiment, as would be their twisting of the ideal of the übermensch. Alexander (talk) 11:21, 26 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Uh, what a nice example of racism. The beautiful "JEWISH" concept goes back to Cicero's humanitas. And the OP doesn't seem to speek Yiddish... how do you say "stupid chauvinist" in New Hebrew?--Popolfi (talk) 18:24, 4 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]