MISHUGA (Yinglish) MiSHOOGaH Mem-Shin-Vav-Gimel-Hey Mih-SHOOG-a____ _____ משוגה _____________[SH-G] ROOTS: Normally, Yiddish words sometimes used in English (Yinglish) are left to Leo Rosten’s dictionaries. This was no MISHUGAAS (neurotic craziness) of a MISHUGANER or michiginer (a crazy person, too easily mistaken for a with a person from Michigan). Dictionary.com (Random House Dictionary, 2010) calls MESHUGA or MISHUGGA (senseless) a slang word that entered English from Yiddish meshuge in 1880. There are no known non-borrowed English cognates, but the Asian and African ones needed an entry. משוגה MiSHOOGaH is an error, and Japanese machigai is an error. The root is actually just ש-ג Shin-Gimel. שגה SHaGaH is to go astray, Syriac-Aramaic SHiGAh, means “he erred;” שגיהSHiGeeYaH is an error in Psalms 19:13. The ש-ג Shin-Gimel root appears earliest when discussing the sacrifices needed for the accidental sin, in verses like Leviticus 4:2. BRANCHES: In Cantonesean accident is shi gu. Saga is an accident in Korean. Swahili “mistake” is (ma) kosa. The guttural and fricative (throat and whistling letters) have changed places... not by accident. |