kugel, noun

/ˈkʊɡ(ə)l//ˈkuɡ(ə)l/
Origin:
English, Yiddish, Middle High GermanShow more Special sense of general English kugel a starchy pudding of potatoes or noodles, from Yiddish, literally ‘ball’, from Middle High German kugel, kugele ball, globe.
slang
A (usually derogatory) term for a young, spoilt, wealthy (Jewish) woman who is preoccupied with materialism or frivolities, and is characterized by nasal, drawling speech. Also shortened form kug (see quotation 1992), attributive, and combination (objective) kugel-spotting. Cf. bagel.
1970 New Nation Oct. 17He married, quite thoughtlessly, a middle-class Kugel, but soon sees that her eccentric zany charm is merely slovenly vacuousness.
1971 Personality 29 Jan. 49Kugel is a Yiddish word meaning pudding, but in this country it now also means daughters of wealthy parents whose only interest in life is their appearance and how to spend more money. Kugels have developed a jargon and accent of their own.
1975 Rhodeo (Rhodes Univ.) Vol.29 No.6, 2I regretfully observe that a fair number of kugels are managing to infiltrate the Rhodes Campus..all dolled up to the nines.
1981 B. Ronge in Fair Lady 2 Dec. 352‘A kugel is not a radical or ethnic phenomenon’ he said. ‘It is really a state of mind. And an accent of course.’
1982 Sunday Times 28 Mar. (Mag. Sect.) 1He took to the business the way a kugel takes to Krugerrands.
1982 I.H. Klevansky Kugel Book 6How to spot a kugel. She’s well-dressed. She wears diamond studs in her ears. She smells expensive. She speaks through her nose...Thursday nights make for good kugel-spotting.
1986 Frankental & Shain in Burman & Reynolds Growing Up 220Some Jewish girls will virtually act out a fascinating stereotype which has been named and articulated in recent years. This is the ‘kugel’ phenomenon, a caricature of a young woman with ‘the latest’ in everything and a single-minded determination to find the ‘right’ husband, the ‘perfect’ home in the best area and to raise ‘perfect’ children. Clearly, the ‘kugel’ is a product of urban affluence associated with the nouveau riche, to be found in many countries and not restricted to Jews. The word, however, has become a code reference for young Jews (and increasingly for non-Jews) in South Africa, with the user aspiring sometimes to the status, but more often rejecting association with the category.
1986 Style Aug. 146Ran into a kugel friend last week. Expressed surprise that she hadn’t already left for Australia. ‘Never!’ she shrieked. ‘As I said to Merv, I’d be rather killed in my bed than have to get up and make it.’
1989 Flying Springbok Sept. 14She has a wardrobe that would make a kugel blanch (1200000 pairs of shoes).
1989 B. Ludman Day of Kugel 8‘Kugels are mostly from the wealthy northern suburbs of Johannesburg..’ Clive said. ‘If you’re a kugel, you’re doing a BA degree while you look for a medical student to marry. Your heart is as big as all outdoors and your head is an empty as the Karoo.’
1991 C. Sampson on TV1, 11 JuneIn America we call the kugel the JAP — the Jewish American princess.
1991 I. & F. De Moor Informants, Grahamstown (now Makhanda, Eastern Cape)Kugel (probably originated at the University of the Witwatersrand) — a rich, spoilt, shallow female. Usually a first year University student, often Jewish. Has a particular accent and manner of speaking, epitomised in Pieter Dirk Uys’s send up in his many satirical reviews. Definitely associated more and more with Johannesburg than anywhere else in the country.
1991 H. Phillips Informant, Johannesburg, Gauteng‘It’s outstanding’, the ultimate mark of kugel approval.
1992 B. Ronge in Sunday Times 10 May (Mag. Sect.) 8I hung around..observing the shopping patterns of the kugels because I was looking for a jet-set, you see, and if the Sandton kugs can’t set your jet for you, then 10-to-one it can’t fly at all.
1993 H.P. Toffoli in Sunday Times 16 May 15Studies show the black-tipped hanging fly chooses her man..on the size of the prey he provides. A regular kugel.
A (usually derogatory) term for a young, spoilt, wealthy (Jewish) woman who is preoccupied with materialism or frivolities, and is characterized by nasal, drawling speech. Also shortened form kug (see quotation 1992), attributive, and combination (objective) kugel-spotting.
Derivatives:
Hence kugel  adjective; also as intransitive and reflexive verb, to be concerned with frivolities, to dress (oneself) smartly or ostentatiously; kugeldom  noun, kugels collectively; Kugelese  noun  nonce, the language of kugels; kugelism  noun, the state of being a kugel; kugelly  adjective; kugel up  intransitive verbal phrase (nonce), to dress up, to over-dress.
1978 G. Aron in S. Gray Theatre Two (1981) 15Phone and cancel — and if that kugelly cousin of mine whines, tell her it’s all my fault.
1979 Sunday Times 9 Sept. (Mag. Sect.) 4Being at..University, I spend half my life in faded jeans, but that doesn’t give me the right to condemn the few who do turn up dressed to kill. I indulge in ‘kugeling-up’ myself occasionally.
1985 Cape Times 15 JulyThe girls are..on their way to the Girls’ Army unit at George. One is a ‘kugelly townie,’ joining the army to fill in time between leaving school and finding a husband.
1987 Fair Lady 18 Feb. 143My daughter..went one step further by opting, as a gentile, to study Hebrew at the University of the Witwaterstrand, and in that temple of intellectual kugeldom marched off with first prize.
1987 R. Cutler in Style Mar. 28Afrikaans will be made up of not only English and Afrikaans, but also of our indispensable Kugelese which has so handsomely enriched the language of this country.
1989 M. Brand in Fair Lady 25 Oct. 90Kugel, materialistic, Jewish person; there are varying degrees of kugelism, from baby kugels (five year olds comparing outfits and parents’ wealth), to minor kugels (nice girls inclined to overdress), to major kugels (prime snobs).
1990 S. Jordan in Style Aug. 40I hate kugel places where you sit for hours drinking coffee with your girlfriends.
1991 C. Sampson on TV1, 11 JuneNow we’re going to stop kugeling and get down to some serious business.
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19701993
kudu, nounn.kuhne, nounn.
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