yenta

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yen·ta

(yĕn′tə)

n. Slang

A person, especially a woman, who is considered to be meddlesome or gossipy.

[Yiddish yente, back-formation from the woman's name Yente, alteration of Yentl, from Old Italian Gentile, from gentile, amiable, highborn, from Latin gentīlis, of the same clan; see gentle.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

yenta

(ˈjɛntə)

censorious US an interfering gossipy woman

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

yen•ta

(ˈyɛn tə)

n., pl. -tas. Slang.

a gossipy woman; busybody.

[1930–35; < Yiddish yente orig. a female personal name, earlier Yentl « early Italian; compare Italian gentile kind, orig., noble; see gentle]

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Noun	1.	yenta - (Yiddish) a vulgar shrew; a shallow coarse termagant Yiddish - a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew script shrew, termagant - a scolding nagging bad-tempered woman
	2.	yenta - (Yiddish) a woman who talks too much; a gossip unable to keep a secret; a woman who spreads rumors and scandal Yiddish - a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew script gossiper, gossipmonger, newsmonger, rumormonger, rumourmonger, gossip - a person given to gossiping and divulging personal information about others

yenta

noun

Slang. A person habitually engaged in idle talk about others:

blab, gossip, gossiper, gossipmonger, newsmonger, rumormonger, scandalmonger, tabby, talebearer, taleteller, tattle, tattler, tattletale, telltale, whisperer.

References in periodicals archive ?

The yentas couldn't stop talking about how great it was.

How Spider-Man's Non-Jewish Co-Creator Helped Me Rediscover My Faith

The scold's bridle (or brank's bridle, or branks) is an artifact we now see on display in museums, but from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries in Europe (England, Wales, Germany, and Scotland) it was used to punish women who had a lashing, scathing tongue, to punish chatterboxes, gossips, busybodies, yentas, yakety yaks, nags, harpies, shrews, vixens, quibblers, spitfires, hags, magpies, blabbermouths, loudmouths, prattlers, tattletales, hawkers, fussbudgets, floozies ...

The Scold's Bridle

But a year later, when the floodgates opened and friends noticed that real-life gay-lebrities were marrying in droves, they started getting down on me like matchmaker yentas in search of a paycheck.

Still single in the age of gay marriage

En terminos de exportacion de derechos de TV/Videos, USA genera un estimado de U$D2o billones de Mares al ario, los que agregados a los negocios domesticos dentro del pais, llevaria el total de yentas por contenidos cercano a los U$D7o billones de Mares al alio.

La economia de los Estudios Americanos

His wife, Griselda--anything but patient--is part of the mystery and one of the most annoying yentas in literature.

Curt Leviant. A Novel of Klass

Sixtysomething Doris (Ruby Dee) still mourns the recent death of her husband, fending off the gossipy church envoys (two black yentas and a minister) who coax her to "get on with her life" and sing in the choir.

Steam

sheep, with established critics assuming the roles of mentors, yentas or

Notes on heart and mind: or, the promise of theatre criticism in the republic of broken dreams

Tax practitioners have been filing protective claims requesting refunds of the gross receipts LLC "fee" (but not the $800 annual tax), pending the outcomes of the Yentas and Northwest cases in the California courts.

Tax Season Toolkit: everything you need to navigate through the busy season

Accordingly, the yentas of Brusilov believed her to be barren and, as such, a perfect match for my zeyde, Zussman, who was a widower, and a father of four.