Author Topic: Kibitzer  (Read 1127 times)

blackrockrose

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Kibitzer
« on: March 18, 2020, 04:45:32 PM »
Just crawling out from under my black rock again, to say that I've never heard of 'kibitzer' (yesterday's 7-by-many).

76 people had heard of it, apparently, but is it really common?

Ozzyjack

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2020, 04:54:19 PM »
It is only common if you speak Yiddish, Rose.  There must be more of them on chi than I thought possible. :D
Regards, Jack

mkenuk

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #2 on: March 18, 2020, 06:35:01 PM »
'Chiefly N. American' according to the COD.

It came up a couple of months ago, in a blitzkrieg 10-letter game at which point I added it to my list of  'Words that I have never heard of but which are common in Chi'.

I can't think why I didn't query it at the time - I usually do - but, yes, most certainly one that I've never heard of.




birdy

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #3 on: March 20, 2020, 01:56:03 PM »
A lot of Yiddish words have made it into American English.  I know I learned a lot more when I moved to Brooklyn lo those many years ago. But we're such a nation of immigrants that we've accumulated words from many languages.

mkenuk

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #4 on: March 20, 2020, 03:04:19 PM »
A lot of Yiddish words have made it into American English. .

That's the key - they have made it into American English - but not necessarily into British, Australian, Kiwi or South African English.

In which case they should be classed as 'uncommon'.


birdy

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #5 on: March 22, 2020, 05:11:13 AM »
A lot of Yiddish words have made it into American English. .
That's the key - they have made it into American English - but not necessarily into British, Australian, Kiwi or South African English.

In which case they should be classed as 'uncommon' 

Right - I agree.

ensiform

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #6 on: March 22, 2020, 01:10:18 PM »
If they made it into American English, they must be common!  370 million people can't be wrong!

 ;D

mkenuk

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2020, 02:14:28 PM »
Then why did only 76 of the 370 million play the word?

 ;D ;D

ensiform

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2020, 04:54:42 AM »
Then why did only 76 of the 370 million play the word?

 ;D ;D

Sheer laziness.

TRex

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #9 on: March 23, 2020, 08:19:29 AM »
My understanding is that a word limited to a particular kind of English (i.e. American, Australian, UK) should not be classified as common.

If that is still the case, the kibitz and its variants should be classified as rare.

Alan W

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #10 on: March 25, 2020, 04:42:28 PM »
The dictionary label of "chiefly North American" or similar is borne out by the News on the Web corpus, where it seems kibitz and its related words are used about eight times as frequently in the US and Canada as they are in the UK. The words are not completely absent from British publications, as for instance in the Guardian in July 2017:

Quote
Seven times in the last eight years the second Friday of Wimbledon has been an all-out Murray gig, with TV schedules cleared and the hill at the back of No1 Court loaded with flag-wavers, jug-quaffers, kibitzers, day-trippers, ruddy-faced once-a-year tennis ultras.

(Incidentally, my spell-checker queries jug-quaffers, but not kibitzers.)

Whether these words would qualify as common in the context of North American English is a question I don't need to answer. I'm satisfied they're not common across the whole Chi world.

This family of words are rare, by our criteria, so I will change the status of kibitz, kibitzes, kibitzed, kibitzing and kibitzer.
Alan Walker
Creator of Lexigame websites

blackrockrose

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #11 on: March 25, 2020, 07:42:17 PM »
Thank you Alan. That was quick!

TRex

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Re: Kibitzer
« Reply #12 on: March 26, 2020, 01:52:45 AM »
The words are not completely absent from British publications, as for instance in the Guardian in July 2017:

Quote
Seven times in the last eight years the second Friday of Wimbledon has been an all-out Murray gig, with TV schedules cleared and the hill at the back of No1 Court loaded with flag-wavers, jug-quaffers, kibitzers, day-trippers, ruddy-faced once-a-year tennis ultras.

(Incidentally, my spell-checker queries jug-quaffers, but not kibitzers.)

When I searched for jug-quaffers (I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine), the only hit was for The Guardian article. Does it have a special meaning?