Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Warm and comfortable; homey; folksy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective homey, folksy

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Yiddish heymish, from Middle High German heimisch, from Old High German heimisc, from heim, home; see tkei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Yiddish היימיש (heimish) (compare German heimisch)

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Examples

  • Brooks uses the Yiddish word "haimish" to describe what it was the simpler camps had but the luxurious ones did not, a word that "suggests warmth, domesticity and unpretentious conviviality."

    Michael Rossmann, SJ: Finding God And Community In Simple Dwellings SJ Michael Rossmann 2011

  • Privacy, space, and refinement are not bad things and we tend to choose them when we can and work in order to purchase more of them, though in the process, we may end up spending less time in environments with haimish and not experience the warm interactions with others that tend to happen in those places.

    Michael Rossmann, SJ: Finding God And Community In Simple Dwellings SJ Michael Rossmann 2011

  • But our haimish breed of armchair soldiers hasn't been confronted with the draft, rationing, or the bill for our foreign adventures; these homespun hawks haven't had to cut back on resources, food, or any comfort, however slight, as part of the war effort.

    Ben Tripp: It's Time to Grow Up 2010

  • But our haimish breed of armchair soldiers hasn't been confronted with the draft, rationing, or the bill for our foreign adventures; these homespun hawks haven't had to cut back on resources, food, or any comfort, however slight, as part of the war effort.

    Ben Tripp: It's Time to Grow Up 2010

  • But our haimish breed of armchair soldiers hasn't been confronted with the draft, rationing, or the bill of our foreign adventures; these homespun hawks haven't had to cut back on resources, food, or any comfort, however slight, as part of the war effort.

    Ben Tripp: It's Time to Grow Up 2010

  • To her audiences, she brought both laughter and tears; to her foster children she offered a haimish [homey] present and the vision of a humane future.

    Jewish Women in Comedy - Molly Picon 2010

  • But our haimish breed of armchair soldiers hasn't been confronted with the draft, rationing, or the bill for our foreign adventures; these homespun hawks haven't had to cut back on resources, food, or any comfort, however slight, as part of the war effort.

    Ben Tripp: It's Time to Grow Up 2010

  • To her audiences, she brought both laughter and tears; to her foster children she offered a haimish [homey] present and the vision of a humane future.

    Molly Picon. 2009

  • His manner was both familiar and overbearing, a combination of haimish and obnoxious.

    ‘Right Time, Right Place’ 2009

  • Contrariwise, the Yiddish haimish means “homely” but is a compliment, suggesting home cooking for food and a homebody for a person who does not long for dancing in nightclubs or trips to spas.

    The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time William Safire 2004

Comments

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  • "On the other hand, some of them were mysteriously, sinisterly rich, and built showy McMansions that had no place in haimish Forest Hills."

    Iphigenia in Forest Hills by Janet Malcolm in The New Yorker, May 3, 2010, p 43

    June 3, 2010