mensch

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mensch

or mensh (mĕnsh)

n. pl. mensch·es or mensch·en (mĕn′shən) Informal

A person of integrity and honor.

[Yiddish, human being, mensch, from Middle High German, human being, from Old High German mennisco; see man- in Indo-European roots.]

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.

mensch

(mɛnʃ)

informal US a good person

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

mensch

(mɛntʃ)

n. Informal.

a decent and responsible person.

[1950–55; < Yiddish mentsh man, human being < Middle High German mensch, Old High German mennisco, mannisco; see man, -ish¹]

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Noun

mensch - a decent responsible person with admirable characteristics

mensh

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

good person - a person who is good to other people

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References in classic literature ?

I caught several times the word "Mensch," man; and also "Fressen," which last I looked up afterwards in my dictionary.

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Ewig kehrt er wieder, der Mensch, des du mude bist, der kleine Mensch"--so gahnte meine Traurigkeit und schleppte den Fuss und konnte nicht einschlafen ...

Nietzsches Lehre vom Ubermenschen, der ewigen Wiederkehr und dem Willen zur Macht

NEW YORK An Ars Nova presentation of a play in one act by Carly Mensch. Directed by Jason Eagan.

Now Circa Then

In Luke and Acts, believers encounter a woman who is at once mother, mentor and mensch.

Mother, mentor, mensch

Wenn ich die Menschenrechte nenne, dann berufe ich mich auf die Definition wonach sie "Rechte, die jedem Menschen unabhangig von seiner Stellung im Staat, Gesellschaft, Familie, Beruf, Religion und Kultur bereits dadurch zustehen, dass er als Mensch geboren ist.

Human rights and the Eastern European Churches/Menschenrechte und die osttlichen Kirchen Europas

Der Mensch, wenn er bewusst handelt, handelt immer auf Grund eines bestimmten Zieles.

Hermeneutik und religiositat/Hermeneutika ir religingumas

I enjoyed Sarah Breger's article on the origins of the term "mensch" (Jewish Word, November/December 2009).

Jewish word: a real mensch

Ebenfalls 1651 veroffentlichte er sein Hauptwerk "Leviathan oder Stoff, Form und Gewalt eines burgerlichen und kirchlichen Staats." Weiterhin verfasst er eine Trilogie uber den Menschen, bestehend aus "De Corpore" ("Der Korper"), "De Cive" ("Der Burger") und "De Homine" ("Der Mensch").

The Leviathan (Thomas Hobbes)--rebirth in legislation and power of the European Union?/Der Leviathan (von Thomas Hobbes--1651) wiedergeburt in der gesetzesflut und der macht Dereuropaischen Union?

Bush, who did not attend the funeral, called Yeltsin a "historic figure," while British Prime Minister Tony Blair remembered him as a "remarkable man." Columnist Charles Krauthammer credited Yeltsin as "the man who brought down the Soviet Union from the inside." Columnist Eric Margolis praised him as "a real mensch," Yiddish for a man of virtue to be admired and emulated, despite acknowledging that Yeltsin's brutal war against Chechnya took over 100,000 lives, mostly civilian--women, children, and the elderly.

World leaders eulogize Boris Yeltsin, ignore his bloody legacy

Two of the thirteen paintings in Kristina Jansson's captivating exhibition take their titles from Mensch und Sonne, Hans Suren's 1924 book of photographs that campaigned for the utopist benefits of a nudist life.

Kristina Jansson: Galerie Aronowitsch

YA readers unfamiliar with the violence and death of the Nazi "final solution" may find this book wrenching, but they will also find it enabling because young Lucek kept fighting, kept working to stay alive, and, most importantly, kept the promise he had made to his parents "to live as a good and decent person, to be a mensch." Patricia Moore, Brookline, MA