Yiddish word for underwear that rhymes w. latkes?

Asked by gailcalled (54644

) December 21st, 2006

This is a query from a friend of mine; "Years ago, when I told a friend I love potato pancakes, he recited a silly rhyme that translates as 'I have latkes in my underwear.'The Yiddish word for underwear rhymed with latkes, and he said as kids, they used to say this. Anyone know what the missing word is?'

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11 Answers

My grandmother always used to called them "Gatchkes" or "Gatches". "Gatchkes" clearly rhymes with "latkes" so let's go with that.

erothexplainsitall (5

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Thanks. Apparently another Yiddish transliteration is "gatkes?" Could you give me the "I have" part of doggerel.

gailcalled (54644

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My grandmother spoke Yiddish in front of me when she wanted to mention something too "grown-up" for me, but she never mentioned "long underwear," which was the only kind worn when people used Yiddish regularlly as the lingua franca.

gailcalled (54644

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in my family, it was pronounced with more of an "uh" sound than an "ah" sound (gutkas, not gatkas) but I'm not sure if that was correct pronounciation or not.

sjg102379 (1245

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Prob., just as w. regional (and international) various pronunciations of English, or Amurrican, there are variations.

gailcalled (54644

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Can any do the whole translation?

gailcalled (54644

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"I have latkes in my gatkes" ? The German would be, what? Ich habe latkes....zu hilfe!

gailcalled (54644

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yich hob latkes in mein gatkes. (says a grandparently reference.)

nomtastic (979

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Thanks to nomtastic and his/her grandmother/father. Nice to solve a simple yet tantalizing problem. I will send this on to the 120 women on my college listserv who want to know. Where else could have I found this answer but on fluther; rock on!

gailcalled (54644

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The word gatkes is actually used in Hebrew today - it means "long" underwear, i.e. underwear which covers the legs as well. Gatkes is also used as a brandname by a company which makes undergarments.

taxlover (21

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