Chutzpah is a  Yiddish word meaning having gall...brazen nerve...effrontery...sheer guts...plus arrogance; it's Yiddish and,  as Leo Rosten writes, no other word, and no other  language, can do it justice.  
    


     
   A little old  lady sold pretzels on a street corner for a dollar each.  Every 
  day a young man  would leave his office building at lunch time and as  
  he passed the  pretzel stand he would leave her a dollar, but never  take 
  a pretzel.  

This offering went on for more than 3 years. The  two of them never 
  spoke. One day  as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left  
  his dollar as  usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him for the first time  in over 3 years. Without blinking an eye she said:  "They're a dollar and a quarter now."  

 

 

--