Saturday, September 25, 2004

Today's OED antedating: "mensch"

Mensch, a person of substance and/or honor, ex Yiddish ex German for "man" (first use cited 1953): Book titled Abe and Mawruss, by Montague Glass, 1911, ch iv, p 121: "Nowadays, if a feller wants to make a success he must got to wear good clothes and look like a mensch, y'understand?"