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yenta

 - 4 dictionary results

yen⋅ta

  [yen-tuh]
Use yenta in a Sentence
–noun Slang.
a person, esp. a woman, who is a busybody or gossip.
Origin:
1930–35; < Yiddish yente, orig. a female personal name, earlier Yentl ≪ OIt; cf. It gentile kind, amiable, orig., noble, highborn; see gentle
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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yen·ta   (yěn'tə)   
n.   Slang
A person, especially a woman, who is meddlesome or gossipy.

[Yiddish yente, back-formation from the woman's name Yente, alteration of Yentl, from Old Italian Gentile, from gentile, amiable, highborn, from Latin gentīlis, of the same clan; see gentle.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
yenta [ˈjɛntə]

  1. n.
    a gossip, usually a woman. (Regarded as Yiddish.) : She can be such a yenta when she's got news.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

yenta 
"gossip, busybody," 1923, from Yente Telebende, comic strip gossip in 1920s-30s writing of Yiddish newspaper humorist B. Kovner (pen-name of Jacob Adler) in the "Jewish Daily Forward." It was a common Yiddish fem. proper name, alt. from Yentl and said to be ult. from It. gentile "kind, gentle," earlier "noble, high-born" (see gentle).
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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