borscht belt
1
9.1
- noun
- /ˈbɔrʃt bɛlt/
- US
:
zona de borscht
And he had produced a record by Red Buttons, the Borscht Belt comedian.
- And he had produced a record by Red Buttons, the Borscht Belt comedian.
Examples
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And he had produced a record by Red Buttons, the Borscht Belt comedian.
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In the mid-20th century, many Jewish families spent their summers in the borscht belt resorts of New York.
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The borscht belt became famous for hosting legendary comedians who shaped American humor.
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He often reminisced about his childhood trips to the borscht belt, where laughter filled the air.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A group of hotels in the Catskills popular with Jewish guests and known for comedy shows
A region of summer resorts in the Catskill Mountains popular with Jewish guests and famous for many comedians
Group of resorts in the Catskills where Jewish performers, especially comedians, often worked
Surface Forms
Morphology
borscht + belt
Knowing 'borscht' (a beet soup associated with Eastern European/Jewish culture) and 'belt' (a region or strip of land) lets a learner infer this refers to an area connected to that cultural group. However, the specific historical reference to the Catskills, Jewish vacation resorts, and its entertainment/comedy connotations are culturally specific and not fully predictable from the constituents alone, so the phrase is only partially transparent.
Etymology
The noun borscht belt comes from the beet soup borscht that many Jewish resorts served and the word belt, which was used for a long 'area' with the same feature. Because the Catskill resorts were famous for that food and for shows by many comedians, people began to call the whole place the borscht belt, so today it means that region and its style of vacations and entertainment.