Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Yiddish ·1990s
Verklempt
from פֿאַרקלעמט (farklemt)
- Meaning
- Overcome with emotion; choked up.
- Source word
- פֿאַרקלעמט (farklemt)
- Route into English
- Yiddish *farklemt* (from German *verklemmt*, stuck, squeezed) → English via Mike Myers's "Coffee Talk" sketch on SNL (1991), which turned it into a mainstream Yiddishism.
- Arrived
- 1990s
From Yiddish
Mass migration from Ashkenazi Eastern Europe to New York (1880–1920) funnelled Yiddish into American English, from where it diffused globally.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.