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Where does the word "bupkis" come from? It comes from Yiddish bobkes, and was adopted directly into English (1930s).
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Where does the word "bupkis" come from? It comes from Yiddish bobkes, and was adopted directly into English (1930s).
Bupkis’s story begins in Yiddish: bobkes meant “goat droppings, nothing of value.” Literally goat droppings, used to mean something utterly worthless. It reached English by 1930s as bupkis. Yiddish for 'goat droppings', i.e. something worthless. Today, bupkis means absolutely nothing, especially something worthless or trivial.
- Stage 1 · Yiddish · 1800s bobkes "goat droppings, nothing of value", literally goat droppings, used to mean something utterly worthless.
- Stage 2 · English · 1930s bupkis "absolutely nothing", Yiddish for 'goat droppings', i.e. something worthless.