Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Yiddish ·1960s
Klutz
from klots
- Meaning
- A block of wood — hence a clumsy, oafish person.
- Source word
- klots
- Route into English
- Yiddish (from Middle High German *kloz*) → American English via 20th-century New York comedy writing. Milton Berle and the Catskills circuit popularised it beyond Jewish communities.
- Arrived
- 1960s
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.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.