What does ‘shpritz’ mean?
I came across the word shpritz in the following sentence of a New York Times article (May 12th) titled, "At 100, Still a Teacher, Quite a Character":
At 100 years old, Ms. Kaufman is still shpritzing jokes, Jewish and otherwise, which is in her genes. Her grandfather was the great Yiddish storyteller Sholem Aleichem, a writer who was able to squeeze heartbreaking humor out of the most threadbare deprivation and wove the bittersweet Tevye stories that became the source for “Fiddler on the Roof."
As I am unfamiliar with the word shpritz, I consulted several English dictionaries. Neither Cambridge Dictionary nor Merriam Webster Dictionary had entry of this word. Readers English Japanese Dictionary defines it as
vt. attack, slander. n. a bit.
Urban Dictionary defines it as
A word of german language origin - similar meaning to that of semen, or spunk. Now used in popular English to describe the act of being impressed, aroused, happy, or ecstatic, upon seeing or tasting a person/substance/product. More commonly used to describe uncontrollable release of excitement or joy
However, neither the definition from Readers English Japanese Dictionary nor Urban Dictionary seem to me to apply to the phrase "Ms. Kaufman is still shpritzing jokes, Jewish and otherwise."
Though I think there’s good reasons for picking up the word, shpritz, what does it mean exactly? Is it a "popular" English word as Urban Dictionary asserts?
Solution 1:
Found a little history on the word. It is indeed Yiddish:
shprits
spurt, to squirt, to sprinkle ∙ (m.) שפּריץ
Neal Karlen in The Story of Yiddish: How a Mish-Mosh of Languages Saved the Jews, says the word took on new meanings within a community of young Jewish comedians (exemplified by Lenny Bruce) in New York in the 1940s:
Using Yiddish as a base, the young Jewish comics helped develop only the second art form indigenous to the United States: the shpritz, a.k.a. "Jewish jazz." (African-American jazz is often thought of as the only such legitimate claimant. Curiously, "jazz" is slang for ejaculate: shpritz is Yiddish for "spray." Talk amongst yourselves.)
Wikipedia has this description from Albert Goldman of Lenny Bruce "shpritzing" during a famous Carnegie Hall concert:
Lenny worshipped the gods of Spontaneity, Candor and Free Association. He fancied himself an oral jazzman. His ideal was to walk out there like Charlie Parker, take that mike in his hand like a horn and blow, blow, blow everything that came into his head just as it came into his head with nothing censored, nothing translated, nothing mediated, until he was pure mind, pure head sending out brainwaves like radio waves into the heads of every man and woman seated in that vast hall.
Because of the word's historical association with Jewish comedy, its use in the quote you found is quite appropriate and well-chosen—even if a bit esoteric.
Solution 2:
spritz or shpritz comes from Yiddish meaning a spray:
spritz 1917, from Yiddish or Ger., lit. "spray." Spritzer "glass of wine mixed with carbonated water" is from 1961.
I don't think it is often used with 'spritzing jokes', but the writer is deliberately using it to draw a connection with Bel Kaufman's Jewish heritage. The use of Yiddish in American writing is common enough in novels and writing. Philip Roth comes to mind when I think of writers of Jewish identity that often use Yiddish words to pepper their writing and draw on their cultural identity.