Gazump

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Dr. Goodword
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Gazump

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Apr 06, 2015 10:45 pm

• gazump •

Pronunciation: guh-zêmpHear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transtive

Meaning: 1. To sell a house to a higher bidder after accepting a lower bid from someone else or to raise the price just before signing the contract. 2. To trump or preempt in any endeavor by questionable means.

Notes: This ostensibly Yiddish word has a surprisingly normal family. The present participle, gazumping, may be used as an adjective and action noun: "Norman is known for his gazumping more than any other real estate agent in town." The person who gazumps is known, unsurprisingly, as a gazumper.

In Play: Laws in the US prevent real estate gazumping, but elsewhere in the English-speaking world it still sometimes rears its amusing if ugly head: "If you're buying a house in that neighborhood, sign the contract as soon as possible, before you are gazumped." Anyone may use this word in its second sense, however, to unfairly trump or preempt someone: "I had the committee convinced we should pave the parking lot, but the boss gazumped my suggestion with a proposal to increase bonuses this year."

Word History: Someone has suggested that this word may have been borrowed from a Yiddish verb gazumpn "to overcharge", but I have not been able to verify the existence of such a word. Gazump first popped up in the 1920s in England and was used in the sense of swindling someone by overcharging. However, the word was not widely used until the real estate boom in the 1970s. London in the 1970s was a place and time of rapidly rising real estate prices—perfect conditions for gazumping by double selling houses and apartments. It was at that time that the word picked up the meaning usually associated with it these days. (Thank you, Andrew McCarthy-Carstairs, for recommending this fascinating British Good Word.)
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call_copse
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Re: Gazump

Postby call_copse » Tue Apr 07, 2015 6:36 am

According to the Oxford Dictionaries Online it's from Yiddish 'gezumph' - don't know if that is a different to your proposed derivation or if you just mis-spelt it?
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defin ... ish/gazump

We also have gazunder - perhaps even more annoying than gazumping, it's lowering your offer on the brink of exchanging contracts, putting the vendor in the position of potentially destroying a lengthy chain if they do not accept. :evil:
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Re: Gazump

Postby Philip Hudson » Thu Apr 09, 2015 7:34 pm

If we could rid the English language of all words Yiddish, it would bless us folks here in the hinterland. I know no words derived from Yiddish that are not harsh, complaining or otherwise disagreeable.
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Slava
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Re: Gazump

Postby Slava » Fri Apr 10, 2015 6:42 am

What are your thoughts on mensch?
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Re: Gazump

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Apr 10, 2015 12:36 pm

Slava, I just wrote a three page treatise about my take on “mensch”. A stray power glitch wiped it out of my computer. So the Agora is blessedly spared my verbosity. Could that have been a warning from the Fates? Perhaps.

In short, “mensch” is a direct borrowing from German as is much of Yiddish. Some linguistic theorists believe there was an ancestor of Yiddish that was Slavic in nature. They maintain that Yiddish, as it is now, has a Germanic vocabulary and a Slavic attitude. I couldn't say yea or nay to that. Could you enlighten us?

Be sure to note that I have no axe to grind with Jewish or Slavic people. I grew up in a rich culture in which many languages and many religious backgrounds obtained. We had no Yiddish speakers but we were blessed with a small Sephardic presence. You might be surprised to find how mixed the Texas culture is. The hinterlands are not totally populated by Bubbas.
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Slava
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Re: Gazump

Postby Slava » Fri Apr 10, 2015 6:50 pm

No aspersions intended in my question, just that I find mensch a quite positive word.

One thing to bear in mind when griping about loan words we don't like; we borrowed them. Yiddish et al. didn't force themselves upon English. To use another's words: We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, "English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."
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Re: Gazump

Postby Philip Hudson » Fri Apr 10, 2015 11:34 pm

Slava, A great response. Thanks!
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Re: Gazump

Postby misterdoe » Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:25 pm

Slava, what about schlep? Here in the NYC area there's a well-known moving company called Schleppers. :)

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Re: Gazump

Postby Slava » Mon Jun 01, 2015 9:49 pm

I like the word schlep, and the Schleppers moving company is a great play on the word. It does seem a heavy word, though. If you're schlepping something, isn't a bit of extra, or even extraneous, effort?

"What a lousy night! My car ran out of gas and I had to schlep back and forth to the station to get a spare canister. In the rain, no less!"

"Looking for that 'must have' birthday present we schlepped all over town."
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