The Barbra File Features Page

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•"Speaking Streisand" - Where else could you find a guide to Barbra's liberal and inventive use of the Yiddish language? Linda Goldstone, a Barbra File contributor, did extensive research to find out what all those expressions really mean.

When you learn them, you'll plotz!

STREISAND SPEAK Researched by Linda Goldstone

Long before Linda Richman introduced "verklempt" to the world, Barbra Streisand had been sprinkling Yiddish words throughout her speech.
Yiddish is a colorful and expressive language, emblematic of both Jewish spirit and humor, as well as a major part of the immigrant heritage of many families from Eastern Europe. Barbra's use of Yiddish in her films, her music and in interviews has characterized her persona. Here's a shtick Yiddish αla Barbra.

•fabrent - (rhymes with 'the rent') verb. To be burning or on fire, usually in a willful or angry way. In an October 16, 1983 LA.Times interview, Barbra revealed: "My mother went to work and my grandmother couldn't handle me. She called me fabrent. If I was sick with the chicken pox and I wanted to go out and play, I put on my clothes, climbed out the window and went out to play." In the September 1991 Vanity Fair , she repeated the story; "I always had extraordinary willpower...My grandmother used to call be fabrent which means on fire. I just couldn't accept no for an answer. I still can't."

•fekakte - (rhymes with 'the-gotcha') adjective. Idiotic, nonsensical, dopey. In the November 1994, Vanity Fair , Barbra had this to say about politics: "What's Whitewater compared to Watergate? At worst it's some 10-year-old fekakte real-estate deal."

•geyshrey - (rhymes with 'the fry') verb. To scream or cry outloud. In the Playboy interview, October, 1977, Barbra said about The Barbra Streisand Album , "Sometimes when I hear that first record of mine, where I'm geshreying and getting so emotional, I think, 'Oh, my God, how did they ever like me?' I'm embarrassed by it."

•gonif - (rhymes with 'Ron if') noun. A thief. In Funny Lady , when Billy takes Fanny's cigarette case and forgets to return it, she asks for it back. He gives it to her and she murmurs derisively, "Gonif."

•gonza megillah - (rhymes with 'Lanza gorilla') adjective & noun. A big deal; a major production. In her Washington stop of The Concert, Barbra used the expression when talking about the media. "I must admit that I was a little afraid to come back here after the gonza megillah the press made over my visit to Washington last year. Gonza megillah sounds like a Japanese movie, but it's Yiddish for 'big deal.'"

•goyisher - (rhymes with 'boy fisher') adjective. A non-Jew, a Gentile. In The Way We Were , Katie describes her WASP husband Hubbell Gardner as her "gorgeous goyisher guy."

•meeskite - (rhymes with 'bees might') noun. Literally it means ugly face. Commonly used to describe an unattractive girl. In The Concert, Barbra looks at the photo of herself at age 13 and says, "What a meeskite."

•mensh - (rhymes with 'bench') noun. A person of quality and worth; an honorable individual. In her interview with Barbara Walters in 1985, Barbra was asked about her son Jason. She answered proudly, "He's a mensh."

•mishegoss - (rhymes with 'fish a loss') noun. Normal everyday craziness, insanity, or madness. In Playboy , October 1977, Barbra talks about being in group therapy. "I'm finding out about life, talking to people, hearing what they feel and think. They've got the same mishegoss I do; it has nothing to do with my being an actress." In an April 1975 interview in McCall's , she says, "I got so tired of the same destructive patterns. I was putting up defensive walls, relationships were difficult for me. ...And I just got so tired of my mishegoss, my craziness."

•nu - (rhymes with 'you') interjection. One of the most commonly used Yiddish words, usually in the form of a question. It means everything from "so?" to "well?" to "really?" In "Second Hand Rose," Barbra sings, "...from Second Avenue, nu?" (Of course, in this case, it could have also been new, as in, Rose finally having something that's not second-hand.)

•pupik - (rhymes with 'up pick') noun. A belly-button, a navel. In describing her shooting The Prince of Tides to Barbara Walters on 20/20, November 3, 1993, Barbra explains, "There were days we were filming and I was up to my pupik in the water."

•tchotchkes - (rhymes with 'botch-kas') noun. Stuff, things, collectibles. In Look , December 16, 1969, Barbra talks about her thrift shop goodies, her art works, and her favorite things, suggesting, "I'm a slave to all my tchotchkes." Many of those tchotchkes were part of BJS's Christie's auctions earlier this year.