Word Fugitives

Atlantic, The, December, 2002 by Barbara Wallraff

The July/August edition of this page sought words for three kinds of human relationships, including that between a bride's parents and her groom's. Over the centuries English has assimilated words from dozens of languages, a number of which do have words for this relationship—but English has yet to borrow or invent any such term.

More than a few readers suggested that we turn to Yiddish for help. Herb Zweig, of Woodland Hills, California, wrote, "See Leo Rosten's The Joys of Yiddish . Machetayneste (the ch is guttural) means the mother of your child's spouse; machuten means the father of your child's spouse; and machetunim means the extended family of your spouse, so it describes these relationships from the children's point of view. Rosten tells an old joke: Why did Adam and Eve live so long? Because they had no machetunim ." Other people invoked other languages. Sally Sordinas, of Corfu, ...