A friend and I struck up a conversation about British Jews a few weeks ago -- He's an American Jew who's family comes from Manchester. He told me that Jews had such an impact on Cockney life that Dickens even used the word "goniff" (Yiddish for thief) in his work.I did a little research, and sure enough, there are lines like this one from Dickens's detective stories:
If the smallest 'Gonoph' about town were crouching at the bottom of a classic bath, Inspector Field would nose him with a finer scent than the ogre's ...Indeed, several dictionaries, including the OED, have attributed the derivation to the Hebrew word "gannabh," which, in turn became the Yiddish word, goniff. Which, then, like "chutzpah" or "putz," made its way into English slang.
There's an alternate theory which tries to prove that the word came from some High German phrase -- Like English, Yiddish also happens to be derived from High German.
Anyway you slice it: All those 19th century Londoners speaking Yiddish. Fancy that.
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