Chutzpah is a Yiddish word meaning gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, sheer guts plus arrogance. It’s Yiddish and, as Leo Rosten writes, no other word, in no other language, can do it justice. This example of chutzpah is better than 1,000 words...
A little old lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young man would leave his office building at lunch time, and as he passed her pretzel stand, he would leave her a quarter, but never take a pretzel.
This went on for more then three years, yet the two of them never spoke. One day, as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him.
Without blinking an eye she said, "They're 35 cents now."
Comment by emilyg - February 19, 2010, 7:23 pm
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