Thanks so much for all the responses. I found what I was looking for from this
great website:
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Glossary/Yiddish_Words/yiddish_words.html#F
<http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Glossary/Yiddish_Words/yiddish_words.html#F>
I am going to spell the word phonetically as there are so many different ways to
spell the word
A friend taught me this word about 20 years ago and I finally wanted to know how to
spell it so I could use it in my writing.
It's such a great word and I use this word all the time when I talk about how
fahtootsed I sometimes feel in the library when I get so busy.
ORIGINAL TARGET:
the word is fatutsed (ph?) or
fartootsed (ph?)
it means confused
it's very similar to the Yiddish word farmisht
RESPONSES:
I believe it's fahrtootsed, but sounds like fahtootsed, like fahrblunget sounds
like fahblunget.
Fershtay?
*****
I smiled when I read your query...
According to "Every Goy's Guide to Common Jewish Expressions," it's 'fertoost.' I
also checked Leo Rosten's "Joy of Yiddish" and found SIX different spellings:
fartutst (adj.), fartoost, fartutster (masc.), fartootster, fartuste (fem.), and
fartootsteh!
I think I say, "fahtust".
Good luck... In my many years of hearing/seeing Yiddish (my parents spoke it when
they didn't want us kids to know what was going on), I come to realize that some
Yiddish words are spelled any number of ways- and they're all correct.
*****
Will either of these help?
http://www.sbjf.org/sbjco/schmaltz/yiddish_phrases.htm
http://www.sillymusic.com/yiddish_dictionary_definitiions.asp
*****
I checked http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/
<https://mail.nycboe.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.yiddishdictionaryonline.com/>
and http://www.bubbygram.com/yiddishglossary.htm
<https://mail.nycboe.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.bubbygram.com/yiddishglossary.htm>
and neither site has anything close to fatutsed. There doesn't seem to be a "ph"
in Yiddish either. It's one of those words, I imagine, that you just have to make
up the spelling because it was never written down.
*****
http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Glossary/Yiddish_Words/yiddish_words.html#F
<https://mail.nycboe.net/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Glossary/Yiddish_Words/yiddish_words.html%23F>
Do you mean Fartoost
(far-TOOST) adj. bewildered; disoriented; discombobulated; seriously
confused.
_____________________________________
Patricia Sarles, MA, MLS
Librarian
Damrosch Day Treatment School
NYC Department of Education
750 Jennings Street
Bronx, NY 10459
voice: 718 378-0006 x2172
fax: 718 589-9544
p s a r l e s @ s c h o o l s . n y c . g o v
http://damroschlibrary.blogspot.com/
http://wjdlibrary.wikispaces.com/
"Ten guards and the warden couldn't have torn me out of those books. Months passed
without even thinking about being imprisoned....I had never been so truly free in
my life." - Malcolm X
"Some kids go to the library ... Others to the street. But they can't go to the
libraries if the libraries are closed." - Officer Dombranski, NYPD
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