Re: Khad Gadya article

[Robert A. Rothstein <rar...>]

In his fine article on Passover songs (posted at
http://www.klezmershack.com/articles/weiss_s/weiss_s. khadsong.html)
Cantor Weiss writes, inter alia: "Apropos of Yiddish usage: the term
'Khad Gadye' is used in that language to mean 'slammer,' as a slang
expression for 'prison.' The association here is with a Polish word for
'prison' that happens to sound something like 'gadya.'"
    Actually the association is more interesting: the Polish word for
"goat" (_koza_) is a slang term for "prison," whence also a Yiddish
slang term for "prison" (_koze_).  And a Yiddish expression for putting
someone in jail, _araynyashvenen in khad-gadye_, which consists entirely
of Germanic and Semitic elements, has a Slavic subtext, since it is a
calque (element-for-element translation) of Polish _wsadzic' do kozy_.
            Bob Rothstein

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