bubbe meise

See also: bubbe-meise

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish באָבע־מעשׂה (bobe-mayse).

Noun

bubbe meise (plural bubbe meises)

1. (Judaism) An old wives' tale; a fairytale.
   • 1988 December 4, Liz Galst, “Lesbian Maccabee Unmasked!”, in Gay Community News, volume 16, number 21, page 7:

     If you look ahead to the second book of the Maccabees, you will see that Judah did not embrace the life of the tzaddik […] No, Judah discovered […] that war, not holiness, is good business. He spent the years after the Maccabean victory pillaging whatever small settlements happened to strike his fancy. So if some Hebrew school teacher feeds you full of bubbemeises about the Jews only having enough sacred oil to light the eternal flame for one day […] don't believe it for a minute.

References

• Bubbe Meises, Bubbe Stories, by Dramatic Publishing, 1999, →ISBN, page 26.
• Michael Wex, Born to Kvetch, St. Martin's Press 2005. →ISBN