word of the day: mishegoss

 The word of the day is mishegoss:

Etymology:  < Yiddish meshugas < Hebrew mĕšuggaʿaṯ , use as abstract noun of feminine of mĕšuggaʿ meshuga adj.(Show Less)

slang.

 

Esp. in Jewish usage: madness, craziness; nonsense, foolishness; (as a count noun) a foolish idea; a foible, an idiosyncracy.

"In 1983, around the time that Berman moved to Tuxedo Park, some of his former students received invitations to purchase 'a limited subscriber's edition of a monumental novel'.  It was Berman's magnum opus.  For many alumni, the book - a four-hundred-and-eighty-three-page volume, beautifully published by a former Berman student - is the only window they've had onto their mysterious teacher.  'His whole universe of mishegoss is in there - the art, the music, the literature, the sex', a college professor who has spent many years trying to figure out Berman says."

 - Marc Fisher, "The master: a charismatic teacher enthralled his students.  Was he abusing them?", 1 April 2013 The New Yorker