Word: kvetches
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...character up. Scottie's business partner, for example, is a huggable, Jewish, Lou Jacobi-type (warmly played by A. Larry Haines), the character who kids in plays always call "Uncle Lou" or "Uncle Irving." The sole function of this fellow is usually to mouth exposition and provide comic relief (kvetch, kvetch, kvetch). But in the second act, out of nowhere, he explains to Jud why he acts so paternal towards Scottie, even though they're the same age. He mentions, and not at great length or for the purpose of generating tears, the loss of his wife several years before...
Many of the entries are borrowed from U.S. minority groups (such as the Yiddish "kvetch" and the Spanish "machismo"), causing Supplement Editor R.W. Burchfield to fear that the Queen's English will become all but incomprehensible with the invasion of "late Mayflower" Americanese. Nonetheless, three of his 30 staffers are now scouring the byways of the American landscape for new words to put into Volume III. By the time they reach the Zs it will be 1982, and the supplement to the supplement will undoubtedly need updating...
Peretz gets angry when he hears the accusation that his Zionism was involved in Karnow's resignation. Karnow is trying to give their squabble more substance than it had, Peretz says. He calls Karnow a "whiner," "a perpetual malcontent," and a "kvetch." Karnow's expensive habits were a main source of friction between them, Peretz says; Karnow had a predilection for dining in fancy, expensive French restaurants with news sources and charging it to Peretz. Peretz says he was also charged with Karnow's long-distance phone calls to his friends...