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Sun 6 Nov, 2016 09:52 am
Stumm, schtum or shtum. I know the first word is true German, are the others valid Yiddish and do they mean the same?
To keep or stay shtum is originally British underworld/criminal/police/legal slang, Yiddish in origin, meaning to keep or stay silent. The word is שטום in Yiddish which transliterates (I believe) as 'shtum' but you can also see it written as 'stumm' as in German (from which Yiddish absorbed many words) or often in ways which are not Yiddish or German such as as schtum, shtoom etc.
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