AEM:
Please give my love to Marcia.
I believe the word makes much more sense, even as an Anglicized form, with
the "on" vs. the "un." I assume both are contained within TJoY.
I can't get by without The Joys of Yiddish, though I did have to replace my
copy several years before we moved because one of my nieces in Chicago got
interested in boys. Verbal boys, if you get my drift. So I had to send her
TJoY on a sort of emergency basis.
BTW, the final word on how silly the goyim look when they overdo the Yiddish
lies within the movie *A Mighty Wind.* Go watch.
--J
On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 5:55 PM, aemelnick <aemelnick_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
> I asked my mom about this. Her reply:
>
> >>Dear Alex,
> I use this word to mean "overdone". Not in a garish sense, but just over
> handled or over painted. " too much messing with" The painting was unga
> patchkaed or be careful not to ungapatchka the frosting on the cake.
>
> For the last word on ongepotchket, I went to the Joys of Yiddish by Leo
> Rosten. From russian pachkat: to soil, to sully.
> 1. slapped together or assembled withut form or sense.
> 2. messed up: excessively and unesthetically decorated, overly baroque.
> "she wore her new diamond earrrings, a necklace, bracelet, two rings and a
> brooch. Oy, was she ongepotchket.
>
> So that is that the last word from this yackne or yenta.
> Love, mom<<
>
>
> --- In OliveStarlightOrchestra_at_yahoogroups.com<OliveStarlightOrchestra%40yahoogroups.com>,
> Susan Oudiz <soudiz_at_...> wrote:
> >
> > Dean, Debbie - are you familiar with this term?
> >
> > I finally got around to asking my Mom yesterday about the word
> "ungapatchke" this is one of those funny words she uses and I've no idea of
> the origin. She would use it from time to time to refer to something
> getting "potched" as if screwed up somehow. She said her Uncle Abe used
> that term. When I asked if it had Yiddish derivation, she said yes.
> > I googled it just now and got this different meaning of "garish". Mom
> doesn't like garish things, so maybe making something garish screws it up
> for her!
> > Mom's memory is going and she didn't remember it at first, and she
> giggled at it. I've got to ask her these things now before time runs out.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Susan
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>
--
Joy M. McCann
Goddess of Ink and Paper
(But pixels obey me, too.)
Mistress of proofreading, fact-checking,
Line-editing, and copyediting
Copy Write Editorial Services
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Received on 2009-08-17 18:26:21