נאַר

See also: נאָר and נאר

Yiddish

Etymology

From Middle High German narre, from Old High German narro (“fool, idiot, clown, stupid or crazy person”). Further origin unknown. Cognate with German Narr (“fool”), whence Dutch nar, Swedish narr, Estonian narr, etc. The word may have been influenced in Yiddish by Hebrew נַעַר (ná'ar, “a youth”), though there is no need for this assumption.

Noun

נאַר • (nar) m, plural נאַראָנים (naronim)

1. (derogatory) fool (person lacking judgment or intelligence)

   Synonyms: שוטה (shoyte), טיפּש (tipesh), פּתי (pesi)

Derived terms

• נאַריש (narish)
  • נאַרישקייט (narishkeyt)

Further reading

• Map of dialectal variants for "fools" from Litvish: An Atlas of Northeastern Yiddish by Dovid Katz