tsuris

English

WOTD – 23 January 2010

Alternative forms

• tsores, tsoris, tsorris, tsouris, tszoris, tzuris

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish צרות (tsores), plural of צרה (tsore, “trouble, problem”), from Hebrew צָרָה (tsará, “trouble, tragedy, calamity”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /tsʊɹɪs/, /tsuːɹɪs/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

Noun

tsuris (uncountable)

1. (US, colloquial) Problems or troubles.
   • 1968, Ronald Sukenick, Up, Dial Press, page 84:

     You think you got troubles? You should go down there and talk to some of those schnorrers. Still, what chutzbah. It's like the Jewish moral sense, emerging from all that tsuris.

   • 1991, John Updike, Rabbit at Rest:

     “Sounds to me, my friend, like you got some tsuris. Not full grown yet, not gehoketh tsuris, but tsuris.”

   • 1997, Hilary Henkin and David Mamet, Wag the Dog, New Line Cinema

     Stanley Moss: I don't need this gig, I don't need the money, I don't need the tsuris ... I don't need it.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:tsuris.

Translations

problems or troubles

• Dutch: sores (nl) c, problemen (nl) pl
• Finnish: riesa (fi)
• French: histoires (fr), emmerdes (fr), embrouilles (fr), pagaille (fr), bordel (fr), problèmes (fr), sale histoire, salades (fr), bourbier (fr), micmac (fr), bousbir (fr), binz (fr), panade (fr)
• German: Zores (de)
• Hungarian: córesz (hu)
• Russian: пробле́мы (ru) f pl (problémy)
• Spanish: lío (es), embrollo (es)

Anagrams

• Ruists, Tursis