nebbishy








noun Slang.

  1. a pitifully ineffectual, luckless, and timid person.

n.1905, nebbich, from Yiddish (used as a Yiddish word in American English from 1890s), from a Slavic source akin to Czech neboh “poor, unfortunate,” literally “un-endowed,” from Proto-Slavic *ne-bogu-, with negative prefix (see un- (1)) + PIE *bhag- “to share out, apportion” (see -phagous).

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