Definitions
Wiktionary
- n. an important person, often in the negative sense of self-important; a bigwig
Etymologies
- Yiddish מאַכער (makher, "one who makes"), from מאַכן (makhn, "to make") (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Such is the reach of the billionaire named by this list two years running as the most powerful person in the art world -- a man who more than any other deserves the term macher, which started appearing out of the blue in countless entries about Mr. Pinault from our New York writers.”
“In Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox community this week, Rosenbaum, who claimed to be a real estate dealer, was described as a macher, or fixer, who assisted renal patients in finding appropriate medical treatment in the U.S.”
“Well, if this were the "macher" awards, Gupta would win hands down.”
“Initially Madoff would rely on a "macher," the Yiddish term for a big shot, who would go to the country club and "brag, 'I've got my money invested with Madoff and he's doing really well,'" the Journal wrote.”
“As the scandal first broke, Greenberg obsessively pandered to the most vile Jew haters with reckless headlines like "Bernard Madoff - The End Of The Jews", and quoted a "macher" that said "Madoff will kill more Jews than Hitler".”
“Says über-wonk (and Franken's friend) Norman Ornstein, "This is a guy who has been a policy wonk for his adult life." article traces 26-year-old real estate and media "macher" Jared Kushner's rapid rise.”
“A commentator looking to take down a Wall Street macher could do worse than setting his sights on Steven Rattner.”
“The rabbi is a big macher so he is often off visiting the indigent, protesting injustice, campaigning for Israel.”
“But then again, if you are such a macher, why are you so worried about the bar tab?”
The Huffington Post: Michael Cohen: Ask Michael Cohen: Mile High Club
“There was this nice young French girl who was the macher of the film festival.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘macher’.
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Yiddishkeit
There are a few short lists of Yiddish words, but none appropriate to the glory of the language, and none that are open. Thought I'd start one, and would love contributions. I'm tagging as I go, an...
schmuck, nosh, chutzpah, shtick, kvetch, oy vey, oy gevalt, shvitz, shtik, shiksa, putz, mensch and 94 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 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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Words of the Times
Words discovered while reading The New York Times, each with a citation from the paper.
testilying, ghost talk, apneist, solastalgia, izakaya, hooker, telectroscope, airflyte, phomance, bromhidrosis, stinky feet, cupping and 482 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for macher.
john “For instance, a lot of the things that high-minded left-wingers hate about contemporary Washington — the legal corruption, if you will, associated with lobbying and influence peddling and corporate money — are a direct result of having built a big, expensive government that every would-be macher in the world feels they need to influence.�?
The New York Times, Are Liberals More Corrupt?, by Gail Collins and Ross Douthat, August 5, 2009 Aug 6, 2009