Talk:Der Veker (Minsk)

The meaning of וועקער
The word וועקער is the Yiddish equivalent of German Wecker, an agent noun derived from the verb wecken ("to awaken"). So the literal meaning is "awakener". The common contemporary meaning is "alarm clock", a device to wake one up in the morning, as shown in the image on the German Wiktionary a well as in the article Wecker on the German Wikipedia. Historically, it can also refer to a person whose function is to go around in the village to wake people up by making noise, such as banging a drum or shouting. In Jewish communities, the awakener woke people up so they could say their Shacharis (morning prayers). (See וועקער on the Hebrew Wikipedia.) Without further information we cannot be certain which of these two senses (a clock or a person) was meant by the name of the newspaper. The name does not simply mean "alarm", though. --Lambiam 21:50, 16 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I think 'Awakener' would be the apt translation. Notably, alarm clocks were hardly common household items in 1917, it would rather refer to person. There are several google book hits with that translation. --Soman (talk) 22:51, 16 May 2020 (UTC)