Yiddish is famously replete with words for personality types that have no precise equivalent in most other languages. Nebbish is a good example of this. A nebbish is someone — nearly always a Jewish man — who is timid and inept. It can reasonably be translated as “poor unfortunate.” In Yiddish, it is pronounced NEH-bikh, but in English the guttural ending is softened. It has been part of the English lexicon since the 19th century, used most commonly by Jews. It is also most commonly applied to Jews.
Many notable on-screen characters are nebbishes, from George Costanza (Seinfeld) to nearly every character played by Woody Allen. In the world of comics, Clark Kent is the nebbish-y alter ego of Superman who, not coincidentally, goes unnoticed by Lois Lane. More modern examples include Leonard Hofstader (Big Bang Theory) and most characters played by Michael Cera. Literary examples include Gregor Samsa (Metamorphosis), Charles Bovary (Madam Bovary) and arguably, the youthful Neville Longbottom of the early books in the Harry Potter series, though the latter evolves into a more capable personality. The trope is perhaps most prevalent in 20th-century Jewish literary fiction. Philip Roth’s characters Alexander Portnoy and Nathan Zuckerman are quintessential nebbishes, as is Moses Herzog of the eponymous novel by Saul Bellow.
There are few female equivalents to the nebbish. Jewish women are generally subjected to different unflattering stereotypes — overbearing, demanding, materialistic and vapid, and sometimes all of the above. Nebbish, on the other hand, routinely describes Jewish men. The term embodies a fear Jews have about how they are perceived by the wider world. In an article for Tablet Magazine, Rachel Shukert explains: “The Nebbish is always Jewish, even if he’s not actually a Jew, to the point where he’s become synonymous with Jewish manhood itself.” There is no especially redeeming side to the character of the nebbish. In The Joys of Yiddish, Leo Rosten explains this succinctly, defining the nebbish as, “an innocuous, ineffectual, weak, helpless or hapless unfortunate. A Sad Sack. A loser.” Rosten also relates a well-known wisecrack: “When a nebekh leaves the room, you feel as if someone came in.
22 more Yiddish words you should know.
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