For as long as I’ve read Ben Katchor’s “Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer” series I never knew what “Knipl” might have meant. I didn’t think much of it, either, but if asked I guess I would have said that it was some sort of play on the word “nipple.” Such a puerile pun for such a stately, poetic character as Julius Knipl makes no sense whatsoever, but absent any other clue I would imagine I am not the only one who makes a connection between Knipl and nipple.
“Knipl” is, according to a reviewer, an untranslatable Yiddish word meaning “the handful of change or small bills required to get by or just get home from some unforeseeable urban adventure.”
Who knew such a perfect word existed?
