med_cat: (Default)
Nechama Chaya ([personal profile] med_cat) wrote in [community profile] 1word1day2019-10-11 04:47 pm

Friday word: Aroysgevorfen

Aroysgevorfen, adj.: thrown out

Pronounced ah-ROYCE-ge-vor-fen, the royce rhyming with "choice", the vorfen with "orphan". Yiddish, from German.

This simple adjective carries a cargo of regret, for it means "wasted", and Jews are not second to New Englanders in their disapproval of wastefulness; aroysgevorfen is applied not only to material things.

My mother would often end a lecture ot me with the dour lament that her words were probably in vain: "Aroysgevorfeneh verter (thrown out words)!" Was ever a phrase more heartfelt?

(from Leo Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish)

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