Etymologies
- From Yiddish קװעלן (kveln), from an old Germanic word akin to German quellen, "well up". (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Ms. Fried said that Ms. Kagan's mother, Gloria, would "kvell," a Yiddish word that means rejoice, over her daughter's accomplishments.”
The Wall Street Journal: Manhattan Renders Its Verdict on Court Pick
“The date for the appearance of "kvell" in the English language is tricky to pinpoint exactly.”
“We are pleased to inform you that the word "kvell" is derived from Yiddish "kveln," meaning”
“Moms can kibitz and kvell about why their kids are such a great catch and what they're looking for in a match.”
USA Today: Do you want your Jewish mother playing matchmaker?
“The Jewish mom would more likely kvell over her daughter than insult her, no matter how fat she had become.”
The Huffington Post: Wendy Sachs: Chinese Moms Vs. Jewish Moms: Who Is Mother Superior?
“Leeba Rivka decides she needs a break from the modern Orthodox, Jewish dating world in New York City, and maybe with some perspective she will eat less noodle kugel and lose five pounds (ten?), reconnect to more meaningful prayer and learn to love and kvell at everything life offers, not just her one-year-old nephew's recent achievement ( "Oy, you made in the potty, you cutie!").”
The Huffington Post: Angela Himsel: Nosh, Davin, Kvell, or Eat, Pray, Love, the Upper West Side Way
“We dance at her wedding, sit at her Shabbos table, kvell [share pride] about her children, laugh at her jokes, and grieve at her loss of loved ones.”
“Van Meter went on to describe how capably Clinton played the crowd, cracking jokes about herself and earning big laughs, and in a later letter to Vogue, a young man would write to kvell about Clinton and take credit for having been the bellower.”
“What a kvell worthy caravan of fuckery at its finest!”
““Mmmm,” she echoed the familiar kvell with her first bite.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘kvell’.
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Words to research
balkanize, obstreperous, dysphoria, euphoria, sinecure, abstruse, chin music, colophon, signature, notwithstanding, nullity, nullity of a dete... and 26 more...
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Vega's Logophile Dictionary
Words I've heard/read in use, words being learnt, words that I want to eventually use in everyday language, words that are high-brow and elitist and scholarly and obscure, words that display the wo...
parsimonious, torpor, recalcitrant, plebeian, vitriol, gumption, augur, aestival, celerity, diaphanous, farrago, nonpareil and 287 more...
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Words I will probably never use
décolleté, pendragon, amerce, viviparous, dragoon, brigand, outlaw, outlawry, lugubrious, boor, contretemps, decrepit and 151 more...
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word set 12
plasmasphere, cockatrice, delimitable, precipitancy, trellising, thermochromism, cadenza, tentaculiferous, fluctiferous, circumambient, loblolly, trailing edge and 142 more...
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lanklenmot's Words
ineluctable, prelapsarian, bien pensant, prospero, preternatural, gratifying, iconoclast, cineast, persnickety, tumescent, galvanize, pap and 887 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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favorite words
sawbones, grackle, celadon, brio, loam, trull, mint, saliva, serape, frisson, impasto, reek and 547 more...
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words from the German
kindergarten, sturm und drang, schadenfreude, zeppelin, blitzkreig, blitz, krieg, panzer, angst, nazi, zeitgeist, doppelganger and 107 more...
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Portnoy's Complaint
Words gathered while reading Portnoy's Complaint by Philip Roth.
bonditt, goy, kishkas, goyische, shkotzim, if-onlying, pishachs, schvartze, milchiks, flaishedigeh, galvanic, chazerai and 123 more...
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Vocab List 2
bruit, smite, malapropism, tricorn, tenebrous, mawkish, disjunctive, mammon, lothario, embonpoint, pabulum, pother and 148 more...
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monkey's Words
callow, feckless, puissant, erstwhile, imbroglio, mawkish, lugubrious, cogent, impugn, sweetpea, perfidy, specious and 43 more...
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jamiefair's list
brio, fungible, peregrination, perspicacity, terpsichorean, mellifluous, anfractuous, crepuscular, effluvium, obfuscate, pusillanimous, deracinate and 34 more...
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lipstickandlyrics's list
prurient, ennui, saudade, reverie, wangle, mondegreen, petrichor, muse, anglophile, chthonic, antebellum, masquerade and 17 more...
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texviany's Words
dignitary, pugnacious, tantrum, wallow, stupify, ubiquitous, larceny, crag, crag, pinhole, lice, taint and 87 more...
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Words: K
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DefunctVariable's Words
Tweets
Looking for tweets for kvell.
nfriedman Yiddish: to beam with pride; to gloat; to exult. From German quellen, "to gush." In a sentence: "My son is a doctor AND a lawyer! I'm kvelling!" Jun 3, 2009