Terms Which Have Disappeared

[LizzieMaine]

I believe the term is "schlimazel", which literally means "bad luck". From what I understand, it can refer to a chronically unlucky person or to an unfortunate occurrence.

When a schlemiel spills the soup, it's the schlimazel he spills it on.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

... which I believe is a Jewish expression.

It's specifically a Yiddish word. Yiddish is a Germanic dialect spoken widely in earlier times by the Jews of eastern European (Ashkenazim) origin. Jews of other backgrounds (e.g., Sephardim, Mizrahim) wouldn't know bupkis about Yiddish.

 

[fashion frank]

How about "He Bought the Farm" and " High Handed" .

All the Best, Fashion Frank

 

[Nobert]

I feel like "high handed" is still something people might use. The one that I only hear in older media is "high hat." "Don't get all high hat with me, I knew you when you were touching every Tom, Dick and Harry for the price of a cup of joe."

A "touch," in terms of asking for a loan or a handout, is one I've never heard in real life. Maybe in other parts of the country.
Another I've only come across occasionally is "I'll tell the world," which seems sort of like "I'll tell ya." That George is a stand-up guy, I'll tell the world."

 

[scottyrocks]

schlemiel:
noun: An inept, clumsy person: a habitual bungler.

schlimazel:
noun: A schlimazel can be concisely described as a born loser.

NOTES:
No discussion of schlemiel would be complete without mentioning schlimazel, one prone to having bad luck. In a restaurant, a schlemiel is the waiter who spills soup, and a schlimazel is the diner on whom it lands.

http://wordsmith.org/words/.html

 

[rjb1]

Using the term "I'll tell the world" may be quoting Shakespeare, intentionally or not:
"Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud"
Act 2 Scene 4, "Measure for Measure"

 

[3fingers]

Regarding schlemiel and schlimazel. My wife is a fan of Laverne and Shirley. I believe both of these words are used in the theme song to that show, but I had never known their meaning before.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Bing to the rescue. A quick web search turned up this:

"A shemozzle is a state of confusion and chaos. It might simply be a muddle, or it could be a ruckus, row, quarrel or loud commotion.

“No end of a shemozzle there’s been there lately,” he said. “Marina Gregg’s been having hysterics most days. Said some coffee she was given was poisoned.”

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, by Agatha Christie, 1962.

It looks Yiddish, fitting the pattern of a group of terms that that are best known in American English through the influence of Yiddish-speaking immigrants: schlock, schlemiel, schmaltz, schlepper, schmuck, schlimazel. (Much variation exists in the way they are spelled.) However, many of these are known earlier in the speech of German immigrants to Britain.

Shemozzle grew up as part of the slang of London’s East End more than a century ago, a creation of bookmakers and racecourse touts. Jonathon Green has found early examples of shemozzle in articles by the racing journalist Arthur Binstead, who penned “gloriously non-PC” columns in the Sporting Times at the end of the nineteenth century under the pseudonym “Morris the Mohel”. (Mohel is a person who is qualified to perform the Jewish rite of circumcision.)

Shemozzle has since spread around the world:

The money is starting to dry up. ... I’m now fighting to get anything. They are not responding to my emails. It’s been a shemozzle, a complete and utter waste of time and money.

Sydney Morning Herald, 15 Feb. 2010.

It looks Yiddish, but is it in fact Yiddish? No consensus exists. Leo Rosten denied in The Joys of Yiddish that it had any connection with that language and others argue similarly that it was invented in imitation of other Yiddish words but isn’t one.

Some references cautiously suggest that it was loosely based on the Yiddish slim mazel, which became schlimazel in the US. Yiddish was originally a German dialect whose vocabulary includes lots of Hebrew words. Slim mazel is a good example: slim is old German, meaning “crooked”, while mazel is from Hebrew mazzal, a star or planet, though its main meaning is “luck”. So slim mazel may be translated as “crooked luck”, roughly the opposite of the Yiddish mazel tov, good luck. But how that changed to mean a rumpus is far from obvious."

So it seems there is such a word as shemozzle and it is English in origin. Who would have guessed.

 

[vitanola]

When a schlemiel spills the soup, it's the schlimazel he spills it on.

Then there is the schmendrick, yet, also sometimes known as a Kuni Lemel (from the character in the famous Goldfaden play) who sits down at the table and spills the soup on himself.

 

[vitanola]

Bing to the rescue. A quick web search turned up this:

"A shemozzle is a state of confusion and chaos. It might simply be a muddle, or it could be a ruckus, row, quarrel or loud commotion.

“No end of a shemozzle there’s been there lately,” he said. “Marina Gregg’s been having hysterics most days. Said some coffee she was given was poisoned.”

The Mirror Crack’d from Side to Side, by Agatha Christie, 1962.

It looks Yiddish, fitting the pattern of a group of terms that that are best known in American English through the influence of Yiddish-speaking immigrants: schlock, schlemiel, schmaltz, schlepper, schmuck, schlimazel. (Much variation exists in the way they are spelled.) However, many of these are known earlier in the speech of German immigrants to Britain.

Shemozzle grew up as part of the slang of London’s East End more than a century ago, a creation of bookmakers and racecourse touts. Jonathon Green has found early examples of shemozzle in articles by the racing journalist Arthur Binstead, who penned “gloriously non-PC” columns in the Sporting Times at the end of the nineteenth century under the pseudonym “Morris the Mohel”. (Mohel is a person who is qualified to perform the Jewish rite of circumcision.)

Shemozzle has since spread around the world:

The money is starting to dry up. ... I’m now fighting to get anything. They are not responding to my emails. It’s been a shemozzle, a complete and utter waste of time and money.

Sydney Morning Herald, 15 Feb. 2010.

It looks Yiddish, but is it in fact Yiddish? No consensus exists. Leo Rosten denied in The Joys of Yiddish that it had any connection with that language and others argue similarly that it was invented in imitation of other Yiddish words but isn’t one.

Some references cautiously suggest that it was loosely based on the Yiddish slim mazel, which became schlimazel in the US. Yiddish was originally a German dialect whose vocabulary includes lots of Hebrew words. Slim mazel is a good example: slim is old German, meaning “crooked”, while mazel is from Hebrew mazzal, a star or planet, though its main meaning is “luck”. So slim mazel may be translated as “crooked luck”, roughly the opposite of the Yiddish mazel tov, good luck. But how that changed to mean a rumpus is far from obvious."

So it seems there is such a word as shemozzle and it is English in origin. Who would have guessed.

Perhaps shemozzle is of American origin, but shlimazel for "luckless one" was a common exprsssion well before 1910. Abrahm Cahan used the term in the Forverts, particualrly in the agony column "A Bintel Breif". "Shlimazel" was a common carachter in Yiddish Vaudeville. Pesachske Burstein sang of hem in the 'Twenites, and Issac Bashevis Singer adapted and then translated al old Yiddish morality tale "Mazel and Schlimazel". YIVO appears to discount most Yiddishisms which acheive gentile currency, it seems.

 

[jamespowers]

Here sit down and wind my Waterbury.

 

[vitanola]

Here sit down and wind my Waterbury.

I hail from Waterbury, Land of the eternal spring.

 

[Stearmen]

Schmuck

 

[vitanola]

Schmuck

Putz

 

[scottyrocks]

Those last two haven't disappeared.

 

[vitanola]

Those last two haven't disappeared.

I know. I run into schmucks and putzes every day. Particularly on the highway.

 

[Zombie_61]

Schmuck

Putz

I was going to make a bad joke earlier in this thread using these words, but since I learned of their original meanings I thought some of those who are "in the know" might find them too off-color for this forum so I declined. :behindsofa:

 

[LizzieMaine]

"What's so funny?"

 

[scottyrocks]

Just when ya think ya grew up wit a rough name, there's always someone worse off.

 

[scottyrocks]

'He gets the signal. Winds up! Putz let's go a high hard one!' hehehe