Thread: Mensch Man!

The other day someone called me a mensch. It was in a positive context, and so, of course my vanity wanted to know more details. I asked my wife, she looked it up and read... "elongated anal cavity."

Yikes!

I guess there is a difference between mensch and minch. Maybe, I should have spelled it for her first. And, I almost crawled thru the internet cable leaving our house to deliver my version of Texas whoop ass down on that guy's head! I'm glad I didn't.

IIRC a mensch is a 'human being' in yiddish and is a definite compliment.

Mensch also means human in German if I remember correctly.

It can also be interpreted as a person of honor,respect, integrity. So dont get your tightie whiteys in a wad! Its all good.

Mensch (מענטש mentsh; Mensch, for "human being") means "a person of integrity and honor". The opposite of a mensch is an unmensch (meaning: an utterly cruel or evil person). ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensch

As long as they don't refer to you as a 'shmuck', you're on the right track.

Vickie and I are both Missouri country raised, and not really cut out for parsing these odd words. We just didn't talk like that in Phelps county (me) or Boone county (wife.) Etymologically, we just got in over our heads!

Originally Posted by Otto

Mensch also means human in German if I remember correctly.

Right on the money. I've never heard "mensch" used as an insult on it's own. It simply means human in german.

And since a lot of Yiddisch is derived from german (or it might be the other way around, who knows?)

It wouldn't be surprising that they mean the same thing in both languages.

Soylent grün ist Menschenfleisch!

I'd not heard the word before so thanks for the informative read!

My sister (who's at uni) and her friends quite often call things "hench". As in, that was a hench film, meaning good/awesome/cool.

I'm getting old....