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{{Short description|Polish word used as a joke by Mad magazine}}
{{refimprove|date=April 2013}}
[[Image:Potrz12.jpg|right|200px|thumb|In [[Bernard Krigstein]]'s "From Eternity Back to Here!" (''Mad'' 12) the word "Potrzebie" made an early ''Mad'' appearance, flying over [[Burt Lancaster]], [[Deborah Kerr]], and a caricature of [[Jacques Tati]] in ''[[Mr. Hulot's Holiday]]''. The issue is dated June 1954, the same month the 1953 Tati film had a U.S. release.]]
[[Image:Potrz12.jpg|right|200px|thumb|In [[Bernard Krigstein]]'s "From Eternity Back to Here!" (''Mad'' 12) the word "Potrzebie" made an early ''Mad'' appearance, flying over [[From Here to Eternity|Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr]], and a caricature of [[Jacques Tati]] in ''[[Mr. Hulot's Holiday]]''. The issue is dated June 1954, the same month the 1953 Tati film had a U.S. release.]]
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Potrzeb.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Wally Wood|Wallace Wood]] illustrated [[Donald Knuth]]'s "Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures" in ''Mad'' 33 (June 1957)]] -->
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[Image:Potrzeb.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Wally Wood|Wallace Wood]] illustrated [[Donald Knuth]]'s "Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures" in ''Mad'' 33 (June 1957)]] -->
'''Potrzebie''' ({{IPAc-en|p|ɒ|t|r|ə|ˈ|z|iː|b|i}}; {{IPA-pl|pɔtˈʂɛbʲe}} [[dative]]/[[locative]] of ''[[wikt:potrzeba|potrzeba]]'', "a need") is a [[Polish language|Polish]] word popularized by its [[Non sequitur (absurdism)|non sequitur]] use as a [[running gag]] in the early issues of ''[[MAD Magazine|Mad]]'' not long after the comic book began in 1952.
'''Potrzebie''' ({{IPAc-en|p|ɒ|t|r|ə|ˈ|z|iː|b|i}}; {{IPA|pl|pɔtˈʂɛbʲɛ}}, the [[dative]]/[[locative]] case form of the noun [[wikt:potrzeba|potrzeba]], "need") is a [[Polish language|Polish]] word popularized by its [[Non sequitur (absurdism)|non sequitur]] use as a [[running gag]] in the early issues of ''[[MAD Magazine|Mad]]'' not long after the comic book began in 1952.


==Origin==
==Origin==
''Mad'' [[editing|editor]] [[Harvey Kurtzman]] spotted the word printed in the Polish language section of a multi-languaged "Instructions for Use" sheet accompanying a bottle of [[aspirin]], and Kurtzman, who was fascinated with unusual words, decided it would make an appropriate but meaningless background gag. After cutting the word out of the instruction sheet, he made copies and used rubber cement to paste "Potrzebie" randomly into the middle of ''Mad'' satires.
''Mad'' [[editing|editor]] [[Harvey Kurtzman]] spotted the word printed in the Polish language section of a multi-languaged "Instructions for Use" sheet accompanying a bottle of [[aspirin]]. Kurtzman, who was fascinated with words he found unusual, decided it would make an appropriate but meaningless background gag. After cutting the word out of the instruction sheet, he made copies and used rubber cement to paste "Potrzebie" randomly into the middle of ''Mad'' satires.


==Appearances==
==Appearances==
''Potrzebie'' was first used in a story in ''Mad'' 11 (May 1954), where it was the exclamation of a character who spoke only in foreign languages and song lyrics, in "Murder the Story," a parody illustrated by [[Jack Davis (cartoonist)|Jack Davis]]. It was used again in [[Bernard Krigstein]]'s "From Eternity Back to Here!" in ''Mad'' 12 (June 1954) on an airplane advertising banner. With the same type font, it reappeared in Jack Davis's "Book! Movie!" in ''Mad'' 13 (July 1954), pasted into a panel as the title of an abstract painting seen in the background. In the same issue the word appears as POTS-REBIE, emblazoned on a cauldron in which Robinson Crusoe is roasting a frankfurter. This piece reappeared in one of the earliest ''Mad'' paperbacks, ''Bedside Mad''<ref>''Bedside Mad''. E.C. Publications, New York, 1959, p173</ref> It was illustrated as a [[rebus]] in "Puzzle Pages!" in ''Mad'' 19 (January 1955). These stories, like others in ''Mad'' comics, were written by Harvey Kurtzman. Frequent repetition gave it the status of a [[catch phrase]] or [[in-joke]] among the readership which continues to the present day. In the first ''Mad Style Guide'', edited by [[Bhob Stewart]] in 1994, the word was made available for display on T-shirts and other licensed ''Mad'' products. It also sees occasional use as a [[metasyntactic variable]] by [[Hacker (programmer subculture)|hackers]].
''Potrzebie'' was first used in a story in ''Mad'' #11 (May 1954), where it was the exclamation of a character who spoke only in foreign languages and song lyrics, in "Murder the Story", a parody illustrated by [[Jack Davis (cartoonist)|Jack Davis]]. It was used again in [[Bernard Krigstein]]'s "From Eternity Back to Here!" in ''Mad'' #12 (June 1954) on an airplane advertising banner. With the same type font, it reappeared in Jack Davis's "Book! Movie!" in ''Mad'' #13 (July 1954), pasted into a panel as the title of an abstract painting seen in the background. In the same issue the word appears as POTS-REBIE, emblazoned on a cauldron in which Robinson Crusoe is roasting a frankfurter. This piece reappeared in one of the earliest ''Mad'' paperbacks, ''Bedside Mad''<ref>''Bedside Mad''. E.C. Publications, New York, 1959, p173</ref> It was illustrated as a [[rebus]] in "Puzzle Pages!" in ''Mad'' #19 (January 1955). These stories, like others in ''Mad'' comics, were written by Harvey Kurtzman. Frequent repetition gave it the status of a [[catch phrase]] or [[in-joke]] among the readership which continues to the present day. In the first ''Mad Style Guide'', edited by [[Bhob Stewart]] in 1994, the word was made available for display on T-shirts and other licensed ''Mad'' products. It also sees occasional use as a [[metasyntactic variable]] by [[Hacker (programmer subculture)|hackers]].
[[Image:Potrzebie13.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Fourth appearance of the word in [[Jack Davis (cartoonist)|Jack Davis]]'s "Book! Movie!" (''Mad'' 13)]]
[[Image:Potrzebie13.jpg|right|thumb|300px|Fourth appearance of the word in [[Jack Davis (cartoonist)|Jack Davis]]'s "Book! Movie!" (''Mad'' #13)]]


A typical appearance of the word is exemplified by the ''Mad'' version of [[Chaucer]]'s ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'' (from ''Mad'' 43, December 1958), which begins:
A typical appearance of the word is exemplified by the ''Mad'' version of [[Chaucer]]'s ''[[Canterbury Tales]]'' (from ''Mad'' #43, December 1958), which begins:
:"Whon thot Aprille swithin potrzebie,
:"Whon thot Aprille swithin potrzebie,
:"The burgid prillie gives one heebie-jeebie.
:"The burgid prillie gives one heebie-jeebie.


==System of measurement==
==System of measurement==
In issue 33, ''Mad'' published a partial table of the "Potrzebie System of Weights and [[Units of measurement|Measures]]", developed by 19-year-old [[Donald E. Knuth]], later a famed [[computer science|computer scientist]]. According to Knuth, the basis of this new revolutionary system is the potrzebie, which equals the thickness of ''Mad'' issue 26, or 2.2633484517438173216473&nbsp;mm,<ref>{{cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald E. |year=2011 |title=Selected Papers on Fun & Games |chapter=The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures (addendum to chapter 1, a reprint of the MAD article)}}</ref> although a digit was mistakenly dropped and the thickness appeared as 2.263348517438173216473&nbsp;mm in the MAD article. A standardization in terms of the wavelength of the red line of the emission spectrum of [[cadmium]] is also given, which if the 1927 definition of the Ångstrom is taken for the value of that wavelength, would equal 2.263347539605392&nbsp;mm.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.webofstories.com/play/17067?o=R |title=DONALD KNUTH - The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures |publisher=Webofstories.com |date=2008-01-24 |accessdate=2018-02-12}}</ref>
In issue 33, ''Mad'' published a partial table of the "Potrzebie System of Weights and [[Units of measurement|Measures]]", developed by 19-year-old [[Donald E. Knuth]], later a famed [[computer scientist]]. According to Knuth, the basis of this new revolutionary system is the potrzebie, which equals the thickness of ''Mad'' issue 26, or 2.263348'''4'''517438173216473&nbsp;mm,<ref>{{cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald E. |year=2011 |title=Selected Papers on Fun & Games |chapter=The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures (addendum to chapter 1, a reprint of the MAD article)}}</ref> although the eighth digit was mistakenly dropped and the thickness appeared as 2.263348517438173216473&nbsp;mm in the MAD article. A standardization in terms of the wavelength of the red line of the emission spectrum of [[cadmium]] is also given, which if the 1927 definition of the Ångstrom is taken for the value of that wavelength, would equal 2.263347539605392&nbsp;mm.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.webofstories.com/play/17067?o=R |title=DONALD KNUTH - The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures |publisher=Webofstories.com |date=2008-01-24 |access-date=2018-02-12}}</ref>


Volume was measured in ngogn (equal to 1000 cubic potrzebies), mass in [[blintz]] (equal to the mass of 1 ngogn of [[halavah]], which is "a form of pie [with] a [[specific gravity]] of [[Pi|3.1416]] and a specific heat of .31416"), and time in seven named units (decimal powers of the average earth rotation, equal to 1 "[[Bob Clarke (illustrator)|clarke]]"). The system also features such units as ''[[Alfred E. Neuman|whatmeworry]]'', ''[[cowznofski]]'', ''[[veeblefetzer|vreeble]]'', [[hoo-hah|''hoo'']] and [[hoo-hah|''hah'']].
Volume was measured in ngogn (equal to 1000 cubic potrzebies), mass in [[blintz]] (equal to the mass of 1 ngogn of [[halavah]], which is "a form of pie [with] a [[specific gravity]] of [[Pi|3.1416]] and a specific heat of .31416"), and time in seven named units (decimal powers of the average Earth rotation, equal to 1 "[[Bob Clarke (illustrator)|clarke]]"). The system also features such units as ''[[Alfred E. Neuman|whatmeworry]]'', ''[[cowznofski]]'', ''vreeble'', [[hoo-hah|''hoo'']] and [[hoo-hah|''hah'']].


According to the "Date" system in Knuth's article, which substitutes a 10-clarke "[[Norman Mingo|mingo]]" for a month and a 100-clarke "[[cowznofski]]", for a year, the date of October 29, 2007, was originally rendered as "Cal 7, 201 C.M." (for Cowznofsko Madi, or "in the Cowznofski of our MAD"). The dates are calculated from October 1, 1952, the date MAD was first published. Dates before this point are referred to, tongue-in-cheek, as "B.M." ("Before MAD.") Later Knuth preferred 0-origin indexing,<ref>{{cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald E. |year=2011 |title=Selected Papers on Fun & Games |chapter=The Revolutionary Potrzebie (addendum to chapter 3, a reprint of an Engineering and Science Review article)}}</ref> so October 29, 2007 is now rendered as "Cal 6, 201 C.M.". The ten "Mingoes" are: Tales (Tal.) Calculated (Cal.) To (To) Drive (Dri.) You (You) Humor (Hum.) In (In) A (A) Jugular (Jug.) Vein (Vei.)
According to the "Date" system in Knuth's article, which substitutes a 10-clarke "[[Norman Mingo|mingo]]" for a month and a 100-clarke "[[cowznofski]]", for a year, the date of October 29, 2007, was originally rendered as "Cal 7, 201 C.M." (for Cowznofsko Madi, or "in the Cowznofski of MAD"). The dates are calculated from October 1, 1952, the date MAD was first published. Dates before this point are referred to, tongue-in-cheek, as "B.M." ("Before MAD.") Later Knuth preferred 0-origin indexing,<ref>{{cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald E. |year=2011 |title=Selected Papers on Fun & Games |chapter=The Revolutionary Potrzebie (addendum to chapter 3, a reprint of an Engineering and Science Review article)}}</ref> so October 29, 2007 is now rendered as "Cal 6, 201 C.D." (for Cowznofsko Dimentii, with "mad" also translated into Latin). The ten "Mingoes" are: Tales (Tal.) Calculated (Cal.) To (To) Drive (Dri.) You (You) Humor (Hum.) In (In) A (A) Jugular (Jug.) Vein (Vei.)


[[Google Calculator]] and [[WolframAlpha]] can both perform conversions from the potrzebie system to other units.<ref>[https://www.google.com/search?q=26+potrzebie+%2F+0.31416+ngogn 26 potrzebie / 0.31416 ngogn = 0.0161561625 kilometers per liter] (retrieved February 26, 2024)</ref><ref>[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=26+potrzebie+%2F+0.31416+ngogn 26 potrzebie / 0.31416 ngogn = 16155.5 m<sup>-2</sup> (reciprocal square meters)] (retrieved February 26, 2024)</ref> WolframAlpha uses the originally printed value of a potrzebie, while Google Calculator appears to use a value rounded to 5 [[significant figures]].<ref>[https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=1+potrzebie+%2F+2.263348517438173216473+mm 1 potrzebie / 2.263348517438173216473 mm = 1] (retrieved February 26, 2024)</ref><ref>[https://www.google.com/search?q=1+potrzebie+%2F+2.2633+mm 1 potrzebie / 2.2633 mm = 1] (retrieved February 26, 2024)</ref> As such, the two sites may not compute identical results.
[[Google calculator|Google's calculator]] can perform conversions from the potrzebie system to other units.<ref>[https://www.google.com/search?ei=Q9T4WZPBHYuB0wLR1rfICA&q=3+potrzebie+%2F+2+ngogn&oq=3+potrzebie+%2F+2+ngogn&gs_l=psy-ab.3...216750.220355.0.221077.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.d50B9hpie1k 3 potrzebie / 2 ngogn = 0.000292824232 kilometers per liter] (retrieved October 31, 2017) </ref>


==Other media==
==See also==
[[wikt:furshlugginer|Wiktionary: furshlugginer]]
The word made an impression on many readers, for example [[Jazz music|jazz]] guitarist [[Jimmy Raney]], who recorded the tune "Potrezebie" {{sic}} on the [[album]] ''The Dual Role of Bob Brookmeyer'' (1954; reissued on [[compact disc]] in 1992). In the late 1960s, "Potrzebie" was a ''[[Jeopardy!|Jeopardy]]'' category.

"Potrzebie" became the default [[password]] for the #1 (which is "God" or the Wizard account) [[user account]] in several [[MUSH]]es and [[MUCK]]s (e.g., [[PennMUSH]], TinyMUCK, [[Fuzzball MUCK]], TinyMUSH, and TinyMUX).
[[Image:Zip022707.gif|right|thumb|500px|[[Bill Griffith]]'s ''[[Zippy the Pinhead|Zippy]]'' (February 27, 2007)]]
Other odd words favored by Kurtzman and popularized by him through their use as running gags in ''Mad'' were ''[[veeblefetzer]]'', ''[[axolotl]]'', ''hoohah'', ''osszefogva'', ''bitsko'', ''furshlugginer'', ''[[Moxie]]'', ''ganef'' and ''[[halva|halavah]]''. Many of these are of [[Yiddish]] or Jewish origin.

In the [[Bill Griffith]] [[comic strip]] ''[[Zippy the Pinhead|Zippy]]'' for February 27, 2007, Zippy and Zerbina mention both ''potrzebie'' and ''[[axolotl]]'' in a panel captioned, "They like to use out-of-date words and catchphrases." The word was also featured as the title of the May 30, 2018 strip and again on September 8, 2018 and January 5, 2019.<ref>[https://comicskingdom.com/zippy-the-pinhead/2018-05-30 ''Zippy'' by Bill Griffith, Wednesday, May 30, 2018 &ndash; Comics Kingdom.] Retrieved May 30, 2018</ref><ref>[https://comicskingdom.com/zippy-the-pinhead/2018-09-08 ''Zippy'' by Bill Griffith, Saturday, September 8, 2018 &ndash; Comics Kingdom.] Retrieved September 8, 2018</ref><ref>[https://comicskingdom.com/zippy-the-pinhead/2019-01-05 ''Zippy'' by Bill Griffith, Saturday, January 5, 2019 &ndash; Comics Kingdom.] Retrieved January 5, 2019</ref>

In "Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess," the second of the novelizations of [[Phil Foglio|Phil]] and [[Kaja Foglio|Kaja]] Foglio's "[[Girl Genius]]" webcomic, the character Herr Doktor Potrezbie Spün is one of the many footnoted references.


==References==
==References==
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[[Category:Units of measurement]]
[[Category:Units of measurement]]
[[Category:Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Donald Knuth]]
[[Category:Words and phrases introduced in the 1950s]]
[[Category:1950s neologisms]]
[[Category:1952 quotations]]
[[Category:Comedy catchphrases]]
[[Category:Comedy catchphrases]]
[[Category:Quotations from comics]]
[[Category:Quotations from comics]]

Latest revision as of 19:13, 19 October 2024

In Bernard Krigstein's "From Eternity Back to Here!" (Mad 12) the word "Potrzebie" made an early Mad appearance, flying over Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr, and a caricature of Jacques Tati in Mr. Hulot's Holiday. The issue is dated June 1954, the same month the 1953 Tati film had a U.S. release.

Potrzebie (/pɒtrəˈziːbi/; Polish pronunciation: [pɔtˈʂɛbʲɛ], the dative/locative case form of the noun potrzeba, "need") is a Polish word popularized by its non sequitur use as a running gag in the early issues of Mad not long after the comic book began in 1952.

Origin

[edit]

Mad editor Harvey Kurtzman spotted the word printed in the Polish language section of a multi-languaged "Instructions for Use" sheet accompanying a bottle of aspirin. Kurtzman, who was fascinated with words he found unusual, decided it would make an appropriate but meaningless background gag. After cutting the word out of the instruction sheet, he made copies and used rubber cement to paste "Potrzebie" randomly into the middle of Mad satires.

Appearances

[edit]

Potrzebie was first used in a story in Mad #11 (May 1954), where it was the exclamation of a character who spoke only in foreign languages and song lyrics, in "Murder the Story", a parody illustrated by Jack Davis. It was used again in Bernard Krigstein's "From Eternity Back to Here!" in Mad #12 (June 1954) on an airplane advertising banner. With the same type font, it reappeared in Jack Davis's "Book! Movie!" in Mad #13 (July 1954), pasted into a panel as the title of an abstract painting seen in the background. In the same issue the word appears as POTS-REBIE, emblazoned on a cauldron in which Robinson Crusoe is roasting a frankfurter. This piece reappeared in one of the earliest Mad paperbacks, Bedside Mad[1] It was illustrated as a rebus in "Puzzle Pages!" in Mad #19 (January 1955). These stories, like others in Mad comics, were written by Harvey Kurtzman. Frequent repetition gave it the status of a catch phrase or in-joke among the readership which continues to the present day. In the first Mad Style Guide, edited by Bhob Stewart in 1994, the word was made available for display on T-shirts and other licensed Mad products. It also sees occasional use as a metasyntactic variable by hackers.

Fourth appearance of the word in Jack Davis's "Book! Movie!" (Mad #13)

A typical appearance of the word is exemplified by the Mad version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (from Mad #43, December 1958), which begins:

"Whon thot Aprille swithin potrzebie,
"The burgid prillie gives one heebie-jeebie.

System of measurement

[edit]

In issue 33, Mad published a partial table of the "Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures", developed by 19-year-old Donald E. Knuth, later a famed computer scientist. According to Knuth, the basis of this new revolutionary system is the potrzebie, which equals the thickness of Mad issue 26, or 2.2633484517438173216473 mm,[2] although the eighth digit was mistakenly dropped and the thickness appeared as 2.263348517438173216473 mm in the MAD article. A standardization in terms of the wavelength of the red line of the emission spectrum of cadmium is also given, which if the 1927 definition of the Ångstrom is taken for the value of that wavelength, would equal 2.263347539605392 mm.[3]

Volume was measured in ngogn (equal to 1000 cubic potrzebies), mass in blintz (equal to the mass of 1 ngogn of halavah, which is "a form of pie [with] a specific gravity of 3.1416 and a specific heat of .31416"), and time in seven named units (decimal powers of the average Earth rotation, equal to 1 "clarke"). The system also features such units as whatmeworry, cowznofski, vreeble, hoo and hah.

According to the "Date" system in Knuth's article, which substitutes a 10-clarke "mingo" for a month and a 100-clarke "cowznofski", for a year, the date of October 29, 2007, was originally rendered as "Cal 7, 201 C.M." (for Cowznofsko Madi, or "in the Cowznofski of MAD"). The dates are calculated from October 1, 1952, the date MAD was first published. Dates before this point are referred to, tongue-in-cheek, as "B.M." ("Before MAD.") Later Knuth preferred 0-origin indexing,[4] so October 29, 2007 is now rendered as "Cal 6, 201 C.D." (for Cowznofsko Dimentii, with "mad" also translated into Latin). The ten "Mingoes" are: Tales (Tal.) Calculated (Cal.) To (To) Drive (Dri.) You (You) Humor (Hum.) In (In) A (A) Jugular (Jug.) Vein (Vei.)

Google Calculator and WolframAlpha can both perform conversions from the potrzebie system to other units.[5][6] WolframAlpha uses the originally printed value of a potrzebie, while Google Calculator appears to use a value rounded to 5 significant figures.[7][8] As such, the two sites may not compute identical results.

See also

[edit]

Wiktionary: furshlugginer

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Bedside Mad. E.C. Publications, New York, 1959, p173
  2. ^ Knuth, Donald E. (2011). "The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures (addendum to chapter 1, a reprint of the MAD article)". Selected Papers on Fun & Games.
  3. ^ "DONALD KNUTH - The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures". Webofstories.com. 2008-01-24. Retrieved 2018-02-12.
  4. ^ Knuth, Donald E. (2011). "The Revolutionary Potrzebie (addendum to chapter 3, a reprint of an Engineering and Science Review article)". Selected Papers on Fun & Games.
  5. ^ 26 potrzebie / 0.31416 ngogn = 0.0161561625 kilometers per liter (retrieved February 26, 2024)
  6. ^ 26 potrzebie / 0.31416 ngogn = 16155.5 m-2 (reciprocal square meters) (retrieved February 26, 2024)
  7. ^ 1 potrzebie / 2.263348517438173216473 mm = 1 (retrieved February 26, 2024)
  8. ^ 1 potrzebie / 2.2633 mm = 1 (retrieved February 26, 2024)
[edit]
Look up potrzebie in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
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