Julius Karash writes from Kansas City, Mo.: “Today, a family
member called my father and told him that his 94-year-old
brother died this morning. My uncle had been up and about,
performing his usual routine, and then suddenly died. “The
family member told my father that the manner in which my uncle
had passed away was a chutz, or a similarly sounding word. Are
you familiar with such an expression? Could it have something to
do with dying quickly at home and with family?” The Yiddish word
khuts does not in itself refer to a manner of dying. It means
“exception” or “exceptional case,” which Mr. Karash’s uncle’s
death indeed was. As sometimes happens with Yiddish words
derived from Hebrew, in which ḥutz means “outside” (its original
biblical meaning was “courtyard” — that is, the out-of-doors
space enclosed by a house), and the prepositional phrase ḥutz
mi- means “outside of” or “apart from,” Yiddish has given the
Hebrew word a significance that it never had in its original
setting. On the other hand, if you’re