This Yiddish Word Helps Me Channel My Rage

I never expected “America’s Next Top Model” to remind me of my favorite Yiddish word, but rewatching the early 2000s show, now the subject of an (in my opinion damning) documentary “Reality Check: America’s Next Top Model,” I heard renowned fashion journalist and esteemed judge André Leon Talley repeat one word over and over:

“Dreckitude.”

“Dreck, which means a wreck,” Talley says of the word, not exactly accurate but also not totally wrong.

The Yiddish word “dreck” means, literally, excrement, but is often used in slang to denote utter trash. The word caught on quickly with the “ANTM” judges, used to describe bad photoshoots and runway walks (including one that featured the show’s only Orthodox Jewish contestant, unfortunately). Eventually, the contestants started using it sometimes, too.

A particularly harrowing season 14 episode that made models walk a runway that looked more like an “American Ninja Warrior” challenge was even titled “Dreckitude.” (The new documentary contends that the attitude of the show’s own producers could be aptly described with that word, too.)

Talley, the late and great former editor-at-large of Vogue, grew up in the Jim-Crow era South was not Jewish, but having spent a long and successful career in the art and fashion worlds, much of it in New York, he probably ran into the Yiddish word quite a bit.

And he undeniably made that word his own. “Dreckitude” is, I would argue, the best term to have come out of the hit show, which also gave us words like “smize” (to smile with your eyes) and “fierce” (an existing word, of course, but one that gained new life thanks Tyra Banks’ usage of it).

That’s because, in my opinion, it comes from such an awesome Yiddish word.

Some would say “dreck” is just a more stylish way to call something “shit.” While dreck does come from the old German “drec,” and “dreck” is also a word in modern German for “dirt,” the word appears to have come into the English lexicon from Yiddish.

In Yiddish slang, it is used it to describe utter drivel, something that is total garbage — from a dreck political policy, to a dreck excuse, to a dreck shirt you got for 70% off (of course it’s got holes!!). I probably use it most often to describe a tchotchke from one of my kids’ goodie bags. Those stretchy sticky hands? They’re awful dreck, in my opinion. It’s a word that can be used for the most highest of stakes and also the most trivial of things. And I love how the word let’s me channel my rage about any annoyance, from biggest to smallest.

I have fond memories of my grandmother asking me, “Where did you get this dreck?” about some unneeded purchase (usually an oversized, particularly colorful coat or sweater from the thrift store), and the utter disdain in her voice. Did it hurt a little? Sure. But did the Yiddishism ease that sting and delight me? Absolutely. Do I try to channel all my Jewish ancestors’ contempt when I call something “dreck?” You bet I do. Calling something “dreck” is just so emotionally satisfying.

Dreck is also part of several wonderful Yiddish expressions, like “dreck mit pfeffer” — “shit with pepper” — a very fun way to embellish calling something worthless. Avrum Rosner shared on Facebook that his parents, Jews from Galicia, used to use the expression “dreck mit leber” — “dreck with liver” — to describe something that was valueless, and also “dreck mit labistik” — “dreck with lovage” — to describe something that was basically trash but dressed up to look as if it is not. And next time you want to call someone, well, a piece of shit, consider using “shtik drek” instead.

One thing is for sure, we should all be using the word “dreck” more.