I'm sure I have heard a Yiddish word for what we're looking for...

"Nebbish" sprang instantly to mind, but I looked it up and it means "a timid or ineffectual person."

Back to the drawing board....

Any Yiddish speakers here able to help out? seems a likely source for such a word! (rich language an' all) I keep thinking, though, that it may well be a classical or literary allusion (probably not Biblical). Maybe I should have another go through that dictionary (shudder!).

Let us go in peace to love and serve the board.