mensch
/mɛnt͡ʃ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.56 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "[…]Scott Nearing was a grand old man a real mensch[…]"
- "Doctor Dreyfuss [to C. C. Baxter]: Be a mensch!"
- "Lionel Kessler, relaxing perhaps on a Louis Quinze day bed, garlanded all round with lines of beauty, seeing welcome proof that his clever maligned young friend was a mensch."
- "Where have all the mensches gone? The character of the administration reflects the character of the man at its head."
- "Olie Kolzig: Goalie for the Washington Capitals who spent most of 16 seasons between the pipes for the team until being released in 2008. Had the longest career of any Capital. Now plays for Tampa Bay. The ultimate mensch, in my book."
- "She was an Amerindian, and stout. She was a real mensch, […] a hard working person, who took pride in her job, which was to spray from an aerosol can a particular base."
Etymology
From Yiddish מענטש (mentsh, “an honorable person”), from Middle High German mensch, mensche, mennische, from Old High German mennisko (“man, human being”), from Proto-Germanic *manniskaz (“human”). The spelling mensch was influenced by German Mensch; compare the alternative spellings. Doublet of mennish; compare also mense. For the semantics, compare Latin humanē (“kindly, courteously”), English humane.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: מענטש, mensch, mennisko, *manniskaz