Yiddish: menufelshe

[rolmich]

Hello everybody,
This is a question in yiddish, so that I hope I am in the right Forum.
I remember that my parents used this word to describe a bad looking girl/woman.
One theory is that the word comes from the hebrew מנובל (with a distorted meaning).
Can you please confirm?
Thanks in advance

 

[duvija]

Are you sure you don't mean 'makhesheyfe' ????

מכשפֿה

My parents used it a lot ...

 

[rolmich]

No duvija. I must add that it could be alsatian slang (patois).

 

[origumi]

Another possibility is מנוולת menuvelet, usually bad, wicked, but literary also ugly, unkempt.

מנובלת would be pronounced menubelet.

 

[L'irlandais]

Hello rolmich,
In Alsace there are 2 different dialects "francique + alémanique" which stretch over about 6 or 8 patois.
Could you narrow down the search? What makes you think in might be from Alsace?
The "sch" sound is frequent in these spoken dialects. Which is noticeably absent from your word.

 

[rolmich]

Thanks so much both of you.
L'irlandais : Actually it's probably rather from Lorraine since my grandmother is born in Hellimer (Moselle) and her husband was from Poland.
My mother and her sister were raised and educated in Saarbruck (today Germany). If I did not use the "sch" it's because I never saw the written word.
origumi : You are telling me that מנוולת ב can also mean "ugly/unkempt". Is this also the case for the word in the masculine?

 

[berndf]

Menuwelsche is the diminutive of menuwel. -sche is a productive diminutive ending in Frankisch dialects from which Western Yiddish is derived; from standard German -chen.

 

[rolmich]

Thanks so much berndf. According to origumi #4 the word in this expression is exclusively feminine. Do you agree?

 

[berndf]

I know the base word Menuwel only as being used for women.