luftgeschaeft

English

Etymology

From Yiddish לופֿט געשעפֿט (luft gesheft), from German Luftgeschäft, from Luft (“air”) + Geschäft (“business”); with spelling influenced by the orthography of the German term.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈlʌftɡəˌʃɛft/, /ˈlʊftɡəˌʃɛft/.

Noun

luftgeschaeft (plural luftgeschaeft or luftgeschaefts)

1. A meaningless or unproductive job, which contributes little or no value to society.
   • 1955, Dov Ber Borochov, To the Question of Zion and Territory, pages 41-42:

     The economic situation of the Jewish people in the diaspora is an inverted pyramid. The normal situation is when the majority is productive, a proletariat in professions like agriculture and industry, and only a minority is bourgeois, in unproductive trades like banking and commerce. Most of the Jewish people work in luftgeschaeft.

   • 2010, David E. Y. Sarna, History of Greed: Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff, page 2:

     What happened in the United States of America was essentially the result of all the luftgeschaefts run by financial wizard luftmenschen (air people) who turned money into paper and then supposedly back into even more money, siphoning off outrageous profits in the process. When the music stopped, the entire house of cards suddenly collapsed, and all that was left, of course, was luft (air) and worthless paper.

   • 2011, Hizky Shoham, “Of Other Cinematic Spaces: Urban Zionism in Early Hebrew Cinema”, in Israel Studies Review, page 131:

     From an ideological perspective, rural productive life was glorified, while the urban luftgeschaeft, non-productive livelihoods such as commerce, was constantly criticized.

Translations

Translations

• German: Luftgeschäft n
• Yiddish: לופֿט געשעפֿט m (luft gesheft), לופֿטגעשעפֿט m (luftgesheft)