tsuris

English

WOTD – 23 January 2010

Alternative forms

• tsores, tsoris, tsorris, tsouris, tszoris, tsures, tzuris

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish צרות (tsores), plural of צרה (tsore, “trouble, problem”), from Hebrew צָרָה (tsará, “trouble, tragedy, calamity”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsʊɹɪs/, /tsuːɹɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

tsuris (uncountable)

1. (US, colloquial, Jewish English) Problems or troubles.
   • 1968, Ronald Sukenick, Up, Dial Press, page 84:

     You think you got troubles? You should go down there and talk to some of those schnorrers. Still, what chutzbah^[sic]. It's like the Jewish moral sense, emerging from all that tsuris.

   • 1991, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest:

     “Sounds to me, my friend, like you got some tsuris. Not full grown yet, not gehoketh tsuris, but tsuris.”

   • 1997, Hilary Henkin and David Mamet, Wag the Dog, New Line Cinema

     Stanley Moss: I don't need this gig, I don't need the money, I don't need the tsuris ... I don't need it.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:tsuris.

Translations

problems or troubles

• Dutch: sores (nl) c, problemen (nl) pl
• Finnish: riesa (fi)
• French: histoires (fr), emmerdes (fr), embrouilles (fr), pagaille (fr), bordel (fr), problèmes (fr), sale histoire, salades (fr), bourbier (fr), micmac (fr), bousbir (fr), binz (fr), panade (fr)
• German: Zores (de)
• Hungarian: córesz (hu)
• Russian: пробле́мы (ru) f pl (problémy)
• Spanish: lío (es), embrollo (es)

Anagrams

• Ruists, Tursis