LOOFT-mensh ("OO" as in "foot")\ noun
: an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income
An adaptation 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."
My first sentence:
Here is a guy whose very life aspires to luftmensch. www.boingboing.net/2005/04/...our_.html
: an impractical contemplative person having no definite business or income
An adaptation 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."
My first sentence:
Here is a guy whose very life aspires to luftmensch. www.boingboing.net/2005/04/...our_.html
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Re: luftmensch
Sun, April 10, 2005 - 9:21 AMi use this one all the time, to denigrate my colleagues in the philosophy department.
in the heydey of zionism, the term was used by zionists to denigrate european jews.
