Good Reads Library
"Kvelling" Over My Daughter--Enlighten the Gentiles #10
Pia of Courting Destiny used the word in a recent entry and asked me to elaborate on it. So, after consulting my well thumbed copy of The Joys of Yiddish, I've come up with the following:
Kvell rhyme with the word "swell" and that's appropriate, because it is related to German quellen 'to well up; gush'. The word it comes from in Yiddish is originally, kveln, meaning 'to be delighted'.
So the sum of the words means to swell up with pride, to gush with pride. This is a sensation usually related to your kids--if you are lucky!
A second, less kind meaning is to gloat over your success in comparison to someone else's lack of success. As in "ha-ha, I got an A and you only got a B!"
But to use the first, sweeter, definition. I am positively kvelling over SC's report card. She got A in everything except math, and in math she got a B. Considering how much she struggles with math, this was just wonderful!
And she would have been on the honor roll, if not for the Wicked Witch of Virginia, a.k.a. her gym teacher, who gave her a "4" for effort, and STILL gave her a "C". To quote Emily Litella:
BITCH!!!
Oh well, as far as we're concerned, she's on the honor roll. And we're kvelling!
Until next time, abei gezunt.........................
