| yiddish. |
хуцпа (chutzpah /huut-spə/ is a curious word, having both negative and positive connotations in AmE. On the one hand, some consider it unfavorable—e.g.: "Alan Dershowitz, the white knight of religious correctness, should have been a tad more judicious in his choice of a title for his book Chutzpah. Leo Rosten's book Hooray for Yiddish! defines chutzpah as ‘ultra-brazenness, shamelessness, hard-to-believe effrontery, presumption or gall'—traits that many Jews and Gentiles would hardly classify as desirable." Letter of Chloë Ross, New York, 16 Dec. 1991, at 6.
On the other hand (and perhaps this says something about American culture), many consider chutzpah desirable—e.g.: "Team president Matt Millen approached Detroit management late in the week in hopes of landing coach Marty Mornhinweg a contract extension after the Lions went 2–14 last season. . . . Not only didn't Millen get what he came for, he was told that both he and Mornhinweg would have their positions evaluated at season's end. Ouch. But we do admire Millen's chutzpah." Sean Brennan, "Going Deep," Daily News (N.Y.), 9 Sept. 2002, at 12. W11 defines it first as "supreme self-confidence" but then unnerves us with "nerve, gall." The word sits uneasily on the fence that divides praise and scorn.
Variant spellings include *chutzpa, *hutzpah, and *hutzpa—all best avoided.
: Хуцпа (из арамейского через иврит חֻצְפָּה и идиш חוצפה) — это характеристика поведения, приблизительно определяемая словами «огромная дерзость» или «сверхнаглость». Например, если сын, убивший родителей ради наследства, просит поблажки, потому что он сиротинушка, — это как раз классическая хуцпа. А вот случай из реальной жизни: супруг требует половину нажитого совместно с убитой им женой.  posmotre.ch Александр Стерляжников) |
