A few readers have pointed out that I’ve been using the word shvitz quite a bit lately in Bubbe’s Forecast. And yes — I have. Guilty. I’m not just using it — I’m clinging to it like the sticky, heavy brewery t-shirts I wear to the office each day. It also happens to be on my personal Top 5 list of favorite Yiddish words to say.
Why shvitz? Well, aside from sounding hilarious, the best Yiddish words are like that — deeply fun to say. This one in particular is the best. The “sh” into the “v,” ending with that hard “itz” — it’s practically a massage for your tongue.
I probably first heard it from my grandmother, or my mother — which, let’s be honest, is how most important Yiddish vocabulary is passed down: not taught, just absorbed through osmosis while someone fans herself with a synagogue program and mutters “I’m shvitzing like a chazzer in here.”
These days, I reach for shvitz almost unconsciously. Maybe because it’s the only word that truly fits this level of heat and humidity. “Sweat” is too clinical. Shvitz has character. It carries heat, emotion, suffering and just enough self-awareness to make it funny.
That said, shvitz has joined the ranks of words like chutzpah, schmuck, and putz — it’s out there in the wild now. I’ve seen it on candles. Heard it on podcasts. I get it. Some words are just too good to keep in the family.
But I’ll keep using it, not just because it fits, but because it’s inherited. It’s part of my summer vocabulary — right up there with bubkes, plotz, shlep, oy vey shmear and nosh.
When people outside the culture hear shvitz, I think they get it immediately. It sounds like what it is. You don’t need a glossary to understand someone wiping their forehead and muttering it under their breath.
If my Bubbe knew how often I’ve used it by now, she’d probably roll her eyes, tell me to work harder and find a more original word.
But really, it’s not summer in St. Louis until you’re shvitzing at a Cardinals game, drinking too many $15 beers and wondering if maybe — just maybe — you should’ve stayed home in the A/C with a seltzer and a nosh.
