Der Luftmensch

luftmensch::

\LOOFT-mensh (“u” as “oo” in “book”)\ (noun)

Definition: an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income

Example sentence: “The son . . . ,” wrote American author Irving Howe, “is leaving to be a luftmensch–a starving poet, a painter without pictures, a radical leader without followers.”

Are you someone who always seems to have your head in the clouds? Do you have trouble getting down to the lowly business of earning a living? If so, you may deserve to be labeled a “luftmensch.” That airy appellation is an adaption of the Yiddish luftmentsh, which breaks down into luft (a Germanic root that can be tied linguistically to the English words loft and lofty), meaning “air,” plus mentsh, meaning “human being.” Luftmensch was first introduced to English prose in 1907, when Israel Zangwill wrote, “The word luftmensch flew into Barstein’s mind. Nehemiah was not an earth-man … He was an air-man, floating on facile wings.”

I will eventually put some kind of lame ass text here that attempts to describe me with a bit of canned wit (yeah, I already SAID that I’m Lame(tm)).

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