luftmensch

L1U1F4T1M3E1N1S1C3H4

noun

A person who is highly intellectual or contemplative but detached from practical affairs, especially the need to earn a living.

“My wife is such a luftmensch she missed our anniversary dinner because she was too busy reading her books!”

OriginYiddish לופֿטמענטש →
Scrabble 20
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Meanings

nounluftmensch (plural luftmenschen)

plural luftmenschen

  1. slangA person who is highly intellectual or contemplative but detached from practical affairs, especially the need to earn a living.

    My wife is such a luftmensch she missed our anniversary dinner because she was too busy reading her books!

    1 more example

    Chagall was a luftmensch, he says, a man of the air...

    March 24, 2007, Helen McLean, “Marc of Distinction”, in The Globe and Mail, Books, page D6
  2. slangYiddishA beggar, a petty trader, a peddler, and various types of paupers.

Synonyms & antonyms

Also see
airling

Origin

  1. Yiddishלופֿטמענטש
  2. Englishluftmensch

From Yiddish לופֿטמענטש (luftmentsh), from לופֿט (luft, “air”) + מענטש (mentsh, “person”). Compare German von Luft und Liebe leben (“to disregard the practical matters of life”, literally “to live on air and love”), German Luftikus (“impractical, quixotic, or careless person”). The word first appeared in Yiddish literature in the 1860s (Nicolas Vallois, The Luftmentsh as an economic metaphor for Jewish poverty: a rhetorical analysis).

More words from Yiddish

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

luftmensch. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/luftmensch

MLA

“luftmensch.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/luftmensch. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “luftmensch,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/luftmensch.

Source: luftmensch on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.