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Today I laughed out loud at this passage from the short story "The Very Rigid Search," in the June 18/25, 2001 issue of The New Yorker, on newsstands now:"It's a Jewish word, like 'schmuck.'" "What does it mean 'schmuck'?" " A schmuck is someone who does something that you don't agree with." "Teach me another." "'Putz.'" "What does that mean?" "It's like 'schmuck.'" "Teach me another." "'Schmendrik.'" "What does that mean?" "It's also like 'schmuck.'" "Do you know any words that are not like 'schmuck'?" He pondered for a moment. "'Shalom,'" he said, "but that's Hebrew, not Yiddish. The Eskimos have four hundred words for snow and the Jews have four hundred words for schmuck."
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Comments:
COMMENT #1
I seem to remember someone saying that "Hacker jargon has as many different terms for hardware failure as Yiddish does for annoying people". I thought it was in ESR's jargon file, but haven't had any luck searching for it.
Posted by Brennan O'Keefe @ 06/20/2001 07:50 AM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #2
There are not 400 Inuit words for snow... http://www.mendosa.com/snow.html "Counting generously, experts can come up with about a dozen." Also see this useful urban legends page: http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/eskimo_words_for_snow_more.html Cheers, - John
Posted by WebWord @ 06/20/2001 03:27 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #3
oh, you freakin' pedant. give the guy some poetic license.
Posted by peterme @ 06/20/2001 09:38 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #4
One of the most mortifying moments in my adolescent life was when I tried to be "tres cool" and used the word "schmuck" in front of a (Jewish) guy I had a crush on at music camp (I didn't call him one, btw). He turned to me and said "do you know what that word means?" "Uhhh not really." "It means 'penis'." I either ran away with my face burning or shrugged it off like I didn't care. I'm not sure which because I was so horrified that I don't remember!
Posted by Lilly @ 06/21/2001 01:00 AM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #5
i remember reading that story in the new yorker thinking if it was a similar portrait of two jewish men (instead of ukrainians), if the roles were reversed, it would have never been printed because it would be considered racist. funny story though.
Posted by jason @ 06/21/2001 07:54 AM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #6
No need to be mortified, Lilly. I'm just surprised that nobody has wised you up by now. Maybe Jews don't surf much on the Internet. Shmuck only means penis if the speaker wants it to, like calling someone a prick. It can also be used to describe a dope or worthless person. But it really means "ornament." It also means neat and smart. Souvenir shops and jewelry stores are full of tchotchkes and shmucken, and they are fun to buy and bring back from trips as little gifts for your friends. Don't be intimidated by slang usages, or ill-informed friends. Just give them a little bauble or other piece of shmucken picked up at the local mall or amusement park.
Posted by B.J. @ 06/22/2001 11:55 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #7
I once asked a rabbi what the word 'schmuck' really meant. He didn't blush but said, diplomatically that it had any meanings but that 'technally' it meant the piece of skin removed at a bris. In other words, it wasn't exactly like the word 'gzat' (meaning penis in Hebrew) but that it signified something that was pointless, unnecessary, without significance; a piece of waste that was either cast away or only kept by a mother as only a mother could love it. A schmuck basically is a waste of space or an idiot/idiotic act or thing of little value.
Posted by orly @ 04/01/2002 02:55 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #8
I once asked a rabbi what the word 'schmuck' really meant. He didn't blush but said, diplomatically that it had any meanings but that 'technally' it meant the piece of skin removed at a bris. In other words, it wasn't exactly like the word 'gzat' (meaning penis in Hebrew) but that it signified something that was pointless, unnecessary, without significance; a piece of waste that was either cast away or only kept by a mother as only a mother could love it. A schmuck basically is a waste of space or an idiot/idiotic act or thing of little value.
Posted by orly @ 04/01/2002 02:56 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #9
I once asked a rabbi what the word 'schmuck' really meant. He didn't blush but said, diplomatically that it had any meanings but that 'technally' it meant the piece of skin removed at a bris. In other words, it wasn't exactly like the word 'gzat' (meaning penis in Hebrew) but that it signified something that was pointless, unnecessary, without significance; a piece of waste that was either cast away or only kept by a mother as only a mother could love it. A schmuck basically is a waste of space or an idiot/idiotic act or thing of little value.
Posted by orly @ 04/01/2002 02:56 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #10
In Hebrew Schmock means simply a prick.
Don't be a schmock means the same as: don''t be a prick.
However, it seems to me that unofficially in the States as elsewhere it has become to mean a derogatory term for a Jew. See for example Tom Paulin's poem published yesterday in the Guardian online
Posted by Dida @ 01/09/2003 01:55 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #11
In Hebrew Schmock means simply a prick.
Don't be a schmock means the same as: don''t be a prick.
However, it seems to me that unofficially in the States as elsewhere it has become to mean a derogatory term for a Jew. See for example Tom Paulin's poem published yesterday in the Guardian online
Posted by Dida @ 01/09/2003 01:55 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #12
In Hebrew Schmock means simply a prick.
Don't be a schmock means the same as: don''t be a prick.
However, it seems to me that unofficially in the States as elsewhere it has become to mean a derogatory term for a Jew. See for example Tom Paulin's poem published yesterday in the Guardian online
Posted by Dida @ 01/09/2003 01:56 PM PST [link to this comment]
COMMENT #13
I read Mr. Foer's story in the New Yorker some time ago. A friend had saved the issue and gave it to me. I was a little down that evening, so when my wife went to bed, I stayed up with the cats and read. Mr. Foer's story brought tears of laughter to my eyes, and finally tears of poignancy. That's probably my favorite combination of emotions. Much of the story is about language and communication, and their uneasy relationship. The narrator (Mr. Foer's guide) fails in his grasp of English (and Yiddish). But his humanity does not fail him.
Posted by Bill @ 02/06/2003 08:47 PM PST [link to this comment]
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