Yiddish words for music, parties and entertainment

Name: Lashon
Price range: $$

Klezmer, wedding jesters, entertainers and cheap melodrama: the Yiddish of a good night out.

freylekhs(freilach)פֿרײלעכס
a fast klezmer dance tune — the kind that empties the chairs
ווען די קאַפּעליע האָט אָנגעהויבן שפּילן אַ פֿרײלעכס, איז קיינער נישט געבליבן זיצן.
“When the band struck up a freylekhs, nobody stayed in their seat.”
badkhn(badchen)באַדכן
wedding jester; the hired rhymester who emceed, joked and improvised verses at a wedding (historical — no longer used in everyday speech)
דער בדחן האָט צעלאַכט די גאַנצע חתונה מיט זײַנע גראַמען. (Der badkhn hot tselakht di gantse khasene mit zayne gramen.)
“The badkhn had the whole wedding laughing with his rhymes.”
shundשונד
trashy melodrama; cheap crowd-pleasing schlock
דער נײַער פֿילם איז אַ שטיק שונד, אָבער איך האָב געוויינט ווי אַ קינד.
“The new film is a piece of shund, but I cried like a child.”
tumler(tummler)טומלער
a historic, affectionate term for a live-wire entertainer or noisemaker who stirs up a crowd (Borscht Belt era)
דער נײַער שכן איז אַ טומלער — אַ האַלבע שעה אין הויף, און די גאַנצע גאַס קען אים שוין.
“The new neighbour is a tumler — half an hour in the courtyard and the whole street already knows him.”

Yaacov, native Jerusalemite

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