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Definitely a word with two meanings, one high German (a Schmuckler is a jewel merchant , no more and no less), and one more colloquial, about which we are now all sniggering gently (yes, yes, honi whatever) . You can see its evolution from refined to bawdy through the picturesque intermediary of "the family jewels". There is a hilarious scene in the old movie _One, Two, Three_, set in West Berlin, about a Coca-Cola magnate's daughter and a would-be East Berlin revolutionary (played by Horst Buchholtz, as I recall) exploiting just this ambiguity.
It's interesting that even schmuck-the-bawdy has a negative and a positive meaning - one the insult, the-word-you-can't-say-on-television (as in plain old "You schmuck''), and the other connoting a certain fondness for a hapless, unfortunate, generally well-meaning bumbler (usually "You poor schmuck" ).
Ain't language(s) wonderful?
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putz
wwh 12/19/2001 6:38 PM ![]()
Re: p*tz
Keiva 12/19/2001 6:49 PM ![]()
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Max Quordlepleen 12/19/2001 6:53 PM ![]()
Re: putz
wwh 12/19/2001 7:11 PM ![]()
Re: putz
wwh 12/19/2001 7:27 PM ![]()
Good schm*ck / bad schm*ck
wofahulicodoc 12/19/2001 11:54 PM ![]()
Re: Schmuck, shmuk
Faldage 12/20/2001 2:12 PM ![]()
Re: p*tz
Keiva 12/20/2001 4:00 AM ![]()
Re: putz
TEd Remington 12/19/2001 7:30 PM ![]()
Re: putz
wwh 12/19/2001 8:16 PM ![]()
Re: p*tz
Keiva 12/19/2001 8:20 PM ![]()
Re: p*tz
wwh 12/19/2001 8:28 PM ![]()
Re: putz
tsuwm 12/19/2001 8:28 PM ![]()
Re: putz
wwh 12/19/2001 8:30 PM ![]()
Re: putz
tsuwm 12/19/2001 8:36 PM ![]()
Re: putz
wwh 12/19/2001 9:00 PM ![]()
Re: putz
Rapunzel 12/19/2001 9:03 PM ![]()
Re: putz
wwh 12/19/2001 9:14 PM ![]()
Re: p*tz
Keiva 12/20/2001 12:06 AM ![]()
Re: p*tz
tsuwm 12/20/2001 3:55 AM ![]()
Re: p*tz
Keiva 12/20/2001 4:32 AM
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