Bocher

See also: bocher

German

Alternative forms

• Bacher

Etymology

The word was borrowed via Yiddish בחור (bokher) which in Western Yiddish applied the senses of “boy, youngster, man”, “Talmud student”, especially “Talmud student who gave lessons to Jewish children in exchange for board and lodge”, “teacher of religious education”, “Jewish teacher”, “assistant schoolmaster”, from Hebrew בָּחוּר (bakhúr, “young man”). Sense 2 is attested since the 18th century. Sense 4 is also attested since the 18th century and developed as an extension of the Yiddish sense “the one who is studious in the teachings of the Talmud; student of a rabbi”. Senses 8 and 9, also extensions of the aforementioned Yiddish sense, are attested since 1862 and were borrowed from Rotwelsch.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈbɔxɐ]
• Hyphenation: Bo‧cher

• Audio

  (file)

Noun

Bocher m (strong, genitive Bochers, plural Bocherim)

1. young man who has not yet reached adulthood; youngling, youngster, youth

   Synonym: Jüngling

   • 1914, Eduard Graf von Keyserling, Abendliche Häuser‎^[1], Goldmann Verlag, →ISBN, retrieved 15 May 2017:

     Ich war ein Bocher von fünfzehn Jahren, als der Vater mir das Bündel auf den Rücken hing und sagte: ›Geh verdienen.‹

     I was a fifteen-year-old youngster when my father packed my bags and said: “Go and [start to] earn [your own money].”

2. (colloquial, dialectal, Southern Germany) Jewish young man who has not yet reached adulthood; Jewish youngling, Jewish youngster, Jewish youth, young Jew
   • 1834, Joseph Seligmann Kohn, Der jüdische Gil Blas‎^[2], München: scaneg Verlag, →ISBN, retrieved 15 May 2017:

     Ihr Vater, ein Sopher, hatte sich keinen andern Tochtermann gewünscht, als Musje Itzig, der allenfalls ein feiner Bocher, aber ein grober Junge war.

     Her father, a sofer, had not wished for any other husband for his daughter than Musje Itzig who at best was a fine Jewish youngster but a coarse boy.”

3. rabbinical student
   • 1912, Emil Ertl, Freiheit, die ich meine: Roman aus dem Sturmjahr, Leipzig: Verlag von L. Staackmann, page 348:

     Hätten wir bei ihren Lebzeiten erkannt, was wir an ihnen besaßen, so hätten wir den Strumpfwirker und den Spenglergehilfen zu Ministern, den Bäckerlehrling zum Bäckermeister und den Bocher wenigstens zum Oberrabbiner ernannt.

     If only we had known in their lifetimes what we had of them, then we would have appointed the hosier and the plumber's assistant to ministers, the baker's apprentice to the master baker, and the rabbinical student to the chief rabbi.

   • 1920, Rainer Maria Rilke, “Rabbi Löw”, in Erste Gedichte, Leipzig: Insel-Verlag, page 56; republished as Walter Arnold Kaufmann, editor, Twenty German poets: a bilingual collection, New York: Modern Library, 1962, page 199:

     Und der Rabbi: "Geht und schickt mir einen Bocher rasch herein."

     Says the rabbi: "Get a bocher, send him here and don't postpone."

   • 1925, Egon Erwin Kisch, “Der rasende Reporter”, in Kisch – Gesammelte Werke in Einzelausgaben, 3rd edition, volume 6, Berlin/Weimar: Aufbau-Verlag, published 1978, page 267:

     Ein neunzehnjähriger Junge ist durchgebrannt vom Lodzer Seminar - er will nicht „Bocher“ sein und nicht Rabbiner werden, er will dichten, die Welt erobern, Bücher schreiben, „ein zweiter Max Brod werden“.

     A nineteen-year-old boy has run away from the Lodz seminar – he doesn’t want to be a rabbinical student and become a rabbi, he wants to write poetry, find his way in the world, write books, “become a second Max Brod”.

4. (colloquial) student

   Synonym: Student

   • 1911 October 23, Franz Kafka, Tagebücher 1910–1923‎^[3]:

     Bis zu zwanzig Jahren war Löwy ein Bocher, der studierte und seines wohlhabenden Vaters Geld ausgab.

     Up until his twentieth year Löwy was a student who studied and spent the money of his wealthy father.

5. (dialectal, Baden dialects; Palatine; Rhenish Franconian: Frankfurt am Main; Bavarian) poor Jewish student
6. (dialectal, Southern Germany) Jewish (male) teacher
7. (dialectal, Baden dialects) rabbi of the village

   Synonym: Dorfrabbiner

   • 1999, Victor Klemperer, So sitze ich denn zwischen allen Stühlen, Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, page 612:

     Indem kam der Fremdenführer aus der Synagoge, erkannte uns sofort wieder - […] nahm uns in Beschlag, ließ den Bocher stehen, der uns verwundert nachsah.

     Meanwhile the tourist guide came out of the synagogue and recognised us immediately - […] monopolized us, left the village rabbi standing who looked after us in astonishment.

8. (colloquial) experienced police officer
9. (colloquial) police officer who is well versed in thieves and their “Gaunersprache” (≈ thieves' argot)
10. (dialectal, Palatine) Jewish bridegroom
11. (dialectal, Alsatian) clumsy, inept, simple-minded person

Declension

Declension of Bocher [masculine, strong]

	singular			plural
	indef.	def.	noun	def.	noun
nominative	ein	der	Bocher	die	Bocherim
genitive	eines	des	Bochers	der	Bocherim
dative	einem	dem	Bocher	den	Bocherim
accusative	einen	den	Bocher	die	Bocherim

See also

• Bacherlein
• ungebachert

References

• “Bocher” in Heinz Küpper (1983) Illustriertes Wörterbuch der deutschen Umgangssprache, volume II: Blau-Faul, Stuttgart: Klett, pages 441–442.
• “Bocher” in Heidi Stern (2000) Wörterbuch zum jiddischen Lehnwortschatz in den deutschen Dialekten (Lexicographica: Series Maior; 102, ISSN 0175-9264), Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, →ISBN, page 68.
• “Bocher” in Wissenschaftlicher Rat der Dudenredaktion, editor (2007), Duden, Das große Fremdwörterbuch: Herkunft und Bedeutung der Fremdwörter, 4th edition, Mannheim/Leipzig/Wien/Zürich: Dudenverlag, →ISBN, page Seite 210.