Schmuck is most often used in American English as a pejorative or insult, meaning an obnoxious or contemptible person; one who is stupid, foolish, or detestable.
Variants of spelling and alterations include shmuck, schmo and shmo.
Schmuck entered English as a borrowed pejorative from the common Yiddish insult, where it is an obscene term for penis.[1] Its etymology is uncertain. The Online Etymology Dictionary derives it from the Polish word smok for dragon, as a euphemism for "penis".[2]
In his book How to Talk Dirty and Influence People standup comedian Lenny Bruce wrote that he was arrested "by a Yiddish undercover agent" for saying the word "schmuck" onstage.
In German the word refers to jewelry, a trinket or a brooch, but its etymology is unrelated to the Yiddish word. Coincidentally, the Yiddish word has been borrowed into German too, however it is spoken and written as 'Schmock'.
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original article was at Schmuck (pejorative). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. |