"luftmensch" meaning in All languages combined

See luftmensch on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: luftmenschen [plural]
Etymology: From Yiddish לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh), from לופֿט (luft, “air”) + מענטש (mentsh, “man”). Compare German von Luft und Liebe leben (“to disregard the practical matters of life”, literally “to live on air and love”), German Luftikus (“impractical, quixotic, or careless person”). The word first appeared in Yiddish literature in 1860s (Nicolas Vallois, "The Luftmentsh as an economic metaphor for Jewish poverty: a rhetorical analysis"). Etymology templates: {{bor|en|yi|לופֿטמענטש}} Yiddish לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh), {{cog|de|von Luft und Liebe leben|lit=to live on air and love|t=to disregard the practical matters of life}} German von Luft und Liebe leben (“to disregard the practical matters of life”, literally “to live on air and love”), {{cog|de|Luftikus|t=impractical, quixotic, or careless person}} German Luftikus (“impractical, quixotic, or careless person”) Head templates: {{en-noun|luftmenschen}} luftmensch (plural luftmenschen)
  1. One more concerned with airy intellectual pursuits than practical matters like earning an income.
    Sense id: en-luftmensch-en-noun-axJ30Odu Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 92 8 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 90 10 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 91 9
  2. (Yiddish usage) a beggar, petty trader, peddler, and various types of paupers
    Sense id: en-luftmensch-en-noun-lYyXB-7G

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "yi",
        "3": "לופֿטמענטש"
      },
      "expansion": "Yiddish לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh)",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "von Luft und Liebe leben",
        "lit": "to live on air and love",
        "t": "to disregard the practical matters of life"
      },
      "expansion": "German von Luft und Liebe leben (“to disregard the practical matters of life”, literally “to live on air and love”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Luftikus",
        "t": "impractical, quixotic, or careless person"
      },
      "expansion": "German Luftikus (“impractical, quixotic, or careless person”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Yiddish לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh), from לופֿט (luft, “air”) + מענטש (mentsh, “man”). Compare German von Luft und Liebe leben (“to disregard the practical matters of life”, literally “to live on air and love”), German Luftikus (“impractical, quixotic, or careless person”).\nThe word first appeared in Yiddish literature in 1860s (Nicolas Vallois, \"The Luftmentsh as an economic metaphor for Jewish poverty: a rhetorical analysis\").",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "luftmenschen",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "luftmenschen"
      },
      "expansion": "luftmensch (plural luftmenschen)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "92 8",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "90 10",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My wife is such a luftmensch she missed our anniversary dinner because she was too busy reading her books!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "March 24, 2007, Helen McLean, “Marc of Distinction”, in The Globe and Mail, Books, page D6:",
          "text": "Chagall was a luftmensch, he says, a man of the air...",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One more concerned with airy intellectual pursuits than practical matters like earning an income."
      ],
      "id": "en-luftmensch-en-noun-axJ30Odu"
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "a beggar, petty trader, peddler, and various types of paupers"
      ],
      "id": "en-luftmensch-en-noun-lYyXB-7G",
      "qualifier": "Yiddish usage",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Yiddish usage) a beggar, petty trader, peddler, and various types of paupers"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "luftmensch"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English nouns with irregular plurals",
    "English terms borrowed from Yiddish",
    "English terms derived from Yiddish",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "yi",
        "3": "לופֿטמענטש"
      },
      "expansion": "Yiddish לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh)",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "von Luft und Liebe leben",
        "lit": "to live on air and love",
        "t": "to disregard the practical matters of life"
      },
      "expansion": "German von Luft und Liebe leben (“to disregard the practical matters of life”, literally “to live on air and love”)",
      "name": "cog"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "de",
        "2": "Luftikus",
        "t": "impractical, quixotic, or careless person"
      },
      "expansion": "German Luftikus (“impractical, quixotic, or careless person”)",
      "name": "cog"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From Yiddish לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh), from לופֿט (luft, “air”) + מענטש (mentsh, “man”). Compare German von Luft und Liebe leben (“to disregard the practical matters of life”, literally “to live on air and love”), German Luftikus (“impractical, quixotic, or careless person”).\nThe word first appeared in Yiddish literature in 1860s (Nicolas Vallois, \"The Luftmentsh as an economic metaphor for Jewish poverty: a rhetorical analysis\").",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "luftmenschen",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "luftmenschen"
      },
      "expansion": "luftmensch (plural luftmenschen)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "My wife is such a luftmensch she missed our anniversary dinner because she was too busy reading her books!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "March 24, 2007, Helen McLean, “Marc of Distinction”, in The Globe and Mail, Books, page D6:",
          "text": "Chagall was a luftmensch, he says, a man of the air...",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "One more concerned with airy intellectual pursuits than practical matters like earning an income."
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "a beggar, petty trader, peddler, and various types of paupers"
      ],
      "qualifier": "Yiddish usage",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(Yiddish usage) a beggar, petty trader, peddler, and various types of paupers"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "luftmensch"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.