Hebonics

msolga wrote:

No? Pray tell, Andrew, just what is a zhlub? And better still, can you name a few?

Michael Moore

John Belushi, in his part in "Animal House"

Funny, the dictionary defines shlub as:

Quote:

A person regarded as clumsy, stupid, or unattractive.

I have always thought of a schlub as someone who had a very gross appearance, such as Michael. (This is an esthetic, not a political opinion! )

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Roberta wrote:

My Aunt Bessie once said that a schlemiel was a shmoe with ear flaps.

You probably all know the story of Peter Schlemihl? (I still remember that I saw it on tv - in black and white - one christmas eve ... )

Well, this name/person doesn't much reference to its Yiddish meaning.
Chamisso heard the term through Itzig, the Berlin banker, to whom Heine was indebted for his interpretation of the word.
(Itzig was an old friend of the author Chamisso; Heine, a famous German poet and "freedom fighter" wrote some explaining about 'schlemihl'.
[According to Heine ("Jehuda-ben-Halevy"), it is derived from the Bible name "Shelumiel," owing to the fact that the person transfixed by the spear of Phinehas for incontinence with the Moabite woman (Num. xxv. 6) was so killed by mistake.]

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

shmutzik -dirty- Usually spoken by Jewish mothers to little kids, who have just dirtied their new outfits.

I was a scmutz fink...and then the dreaded handkerchief came out. Rolling Eyes

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Phoenix, my understanding of shlub is closer to the dictionary definition. Ah, yes. I'm remembering the summer of 1960 something. Summer in Connecticut. A boy had a crush on me. To me he was and always will be the shlub. I have no idea what his name was. Did he have a name? Yes, everybody's got a name.

Speaking of my Aunt Bessie, I'm remembering the time when I ran into her on the CC local. She was knitting an evening gown for her son's wedding. She had 16 bobbins hanging off the skirt. When the train loiched, the bobbins wiggled.

Speaking of schmutz, my cat Mikey gets schmutz in the corners of his eyes. I call him Mr. Schmutzie.

Yes, I'm rambling. Sometimes a goil's gotta ramble. So shoot me. A person can't ramble? This is a tough crowd.

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A tough crowd you want to see? Stay away from the political threads, I'm begging you. This you call tough? You should live so long.

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Feh, pooh, on the political threads. I don't have enough problems? I have to go looking for trouble? What am I? An idiot? Crazy, maybe a bissel. But not stoopid.

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Oy Boida, don't talk politics to me. In drerd mein gelt! Those goniffs, they'd take the shirt right offa my back. Paskudnyaks, all of them they are!

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

Oy Boida, don't talk politics to me. In drerd mein gelt! Those goniffs, they'd take the shirt right offa my back. Paskudnyaks, all of them they are!

Phoenix bubbele. I eschew politics. I reiterate. Feh pooh. On the other hand, what's a paskudnyak? Ya got me there, kid. I'm supposed to know these words. An American girlchik such as moi? Gimme a break.

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Roberta wrote:

Phoenix32890 wrote:
Oy Boida, don't talk politics to me. In drerd mein gelt! Those goniffs, they'd take the shirt right offa my back. Paskudnyaks, all of them they are!

Phoenix bubbele. I eschew politics. I reiterate. Feh pooh. On the other hand, what's a paskudnyak? Ya got me there, kid. I'm supposed to know these words. An American girlchik such as moi? Gimme a break.

Yeah. What is a paskudnyak?

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Yeah, what language is that, Phoenix? Litvak or Galiciano? I don't recognize the word either.

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Per Leo Rosten. "From Polish/Ukranian. A man or woman who is paskudne (though purists prefer to say paskudnika for the female of the species), hence nasty, mean, odious,contemptible, rotten, vulgar, insensitive, petty, and in general opprobrious. 'I wouldn't say "hello" to a paskudnyak like that.'"

From "The Joys of Yiddish".

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flyboy804- My father would sometimes call me that when he was really pissed off at me. so waddaya think? No wonder I turned out the way that I did!

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Thanks for that, flyboy. I thoughtit had an eastern European sound to it. Come to think of it, when I was naughty as a child my (Ukrainian) parents would also call me that! I didn't turn out the best either, Phoenix! Laughing

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A typical stern but loving Yiddish papa no doubt, Phoenix. Had psychoanalysis been in vogue in NYC back then you would probably have been in analysis.

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Gee, I thought it must mean someone from New Joisey..

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Hey, I was no prize either (big, fresh mouth on this kid), but my parents never called me that! Oy, such a deprived childhood I had. Nobody ever called me a paskudnyak. Woe is me.

BTW, thanks Flyboy for the definition. To think that I could get to be so old and not know such a basic (and excellent) word.

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Paskudnik is used more often here instead.

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Quote:

Paskudnik is used more often here instead.

Walter- Oh, I was called THAT, too!

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I hope everybody had a good holiday and gave a good grepse. What's a good meal without a good grepse. Every meal at my grandmother's house ended with a bottle of Bromo Seltzer on the table. If the regular seltzer didn't do the trick, the Bromo surely would.

I bissel belt loosening. A bissel grepsing. Ah, the joys of the holidays.

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