mensch

n. Informal, pl., mensch·es, or mensch·en (mĕn'shən).
A person having admirable characteristics, such as fortitude and firmness of purpose: "He radiates the kind of fundamental decency that has a name in Yiddish; he's a mensch" (James Atlas).

[Yiddish, human being, mensch, from Middle High German, human being, from Old High German mennisco.]

It's not only Yiddish speakers who are advised to be a mensch, act like a mensch and associate with mensches — the word has made its way into mainstream English. It is used to great effect by New York Times columnist Paul Krugman:

"'Be a mensch,' my parents told me. Literally, a mensch is a person. But by implication, a mensch is an upstanding person who takes responsibility for his actions.
The people now running America aren't mensches."

Link: The Mensch Gap

Posted February 21, 2006.

See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words.

[Yiddish, a human being] a person of integrity and honor

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(mench, mensh)

noun, plural menschen (MEN-chuhn, MEN-shuhn) or mensches
A decent, upright, honorable person.

Etymology
From Yiddish mentsh (man, human being), from Middle High German mensch, from Old High German mennisco

The same root gives us another eminently useful Yiddish term luftmensch, literally an airman. A luftmensch is an impractical dreamer (think Laputans of Gulliver's Travels). The word could also refer to one with no visible means of support.
Yet another term with a mensch connection is superman. It comes to us from German Übermensch by a process known as loan translation. Übermensch was Friedrich Nietzsche's term for an ideal superior man (from German über above, beyond, superior). In 1903 when George Bernard Shaw needed an English equivalent, he came up with superman. -Anu

Usage
"Redemption is cheap in movies, if not in life, and the new Argentine comedy Son of the Bride is a custom-calibrated sucker punch. When the hero (Ricardo Darin) is immediately revealed as a bloated, chain-smoking, workaholic deadbeat dad, we know a tragedy and/or cardiac event will transform him into a life-loving mensch." — Michael Atkinson, Redeem Upon Purchase, The Village Voice (New York), Mar 26, 2002.

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