I) a schlemiel

Originally Posted By: tsuwm
sure, I'll vote for I if no one else will.

(although I don't think we actually need yet another word for schlemiel, as Yiddish already seems to have several (I recall reading somewhere a differentiation amongst shlemiel/shmendrick/shlimazel/schlump/etc. (your spellings may vary.))


he expands on the quote..
"The most popular pair of Yiddish words is “schlemiel &
schlimazel.” Both words refer to unlucky guys. A schlemiel is a bungler who continually causes disasters (accidentally); a schlimazel is a guy who’s continually the victim of disasters (caused by schlemiels).

For example, suppose two waiters accidentally spill hot soup onto your lap — five times each. The waiters are schlemiels; you’re a schlimazel."

And the guy at the next table that laughs at you when it happens is a Schmuck [not to be confused with a putz]. Your brother-in-law is a putz, but your ex-brother-in-law is a schmuck. [Don't ask me to explain; I barely understand it myself, being a goy, but my ex-office-mate would explain to people that for a goy I was a pretty good mensch.]
And then there is a Schmendrick, similar to a schlemiel, but I'm not quite able to explain the difference, except that a Schmendrick is more likely to mess non-physical things up.

"A [schlemiel] is always knocking things off a table; the [nebbish] always picks them up."
- Leo Rosten, The Joys of Yiddish (1968)