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I didn't see the movie, but I think veh or feh is just the German Weh=woe. Germans still say O Weh in situations wher they might also say Scheiße=shit, another variant being Au weiha. Weh(e) alone is a kind of warning or admonition in modern German, and I suggest that's what the granny was doing. mj MC Ward wrote: >Hi Martin, did you ever see the biopic about Lenny >Bruce years ago? There's a scene whare he's eating >dinner with the whole family and cracking offensive >jokes to which his grandmother (outraged) keeps >saying, "Feh Lenny, feh!" What exactly does "feh" >mean? > >Candice > > > >--- MJ Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > > > >> No indeed. Oy as in O and Gevalt as in Gewalt >>(German and Polish)= >>Force, Power; "As flies to wanton boys are we to the >>gods/They kill us >>for their sport", or Uh oh!/Oh no! Oy veh! is a >>related expletive, from >>O weh! (nice example of that in Mahler's *Lieder >>eines fahrenden >>Gesellen*)= Ah, woe is me! There are of course >>considerable connotative >>differences between the Yiddish and other forms, I >>believe. >>mj amateur mj >>Kenneth Wolman wrote: >> >> >> >>>Peter Cudmore wrote: >>> >>> >>> >>>>Care to elaborate on 'Oy Gevalts', Ken? >>>> >>>>P >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>Oy gevalt="pig" Yiddish signifying the fist shaken >>> >>> >>at the empty >> >> >>>heavens, the cry of despair, the What Else Can Go >>> >>> >>Wrong?? Answer: the >> >> >>>worst is not when we can say This Is The Worst. >>> >>>Welcome to Oy Gevalt. You don't have to be >>> >>> >>Jewish, etc. >> >> >>>ken >>> >>> >>> >>-- >>A man may write of love, and not be in love, as well >>as of husbandrie, and not goe to plough: or of >>witches, and be none: or of holinesse, and be flat >>prophane. - Giles Fletcher the Elder. >> >> >> > > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around >http://mail.yahoo.com > > > -- A man may write of love, and not be in love, as well as of husbandrie, and not goe to plough: or of witches, and be none: or of holinesse, and be flat prophane. - Giles Fletcher the Elder.