Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Yiddish ·1920s
Dreck
from drek
- Meaning
- Rubbish; worthless material.
- Source word
- drek
- Route into English
- Yiddish *drek* (excrement, from Middle High German *drec*) → American English slang. Softened in English to "junk," but in Yiddish the word keeps its full vulgar force.
- Arrived
- 1920s
From Yiddish
Mass migration from Ashkenazi Eastern Europe to New York (1880–1920) funnelled Yiddish into American English, from where it diffused globally.
English borrows.
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