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Joined: Jan 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
I came across this word while reading reviews of new cars in a guide published by "Automobile" magazine. I had to reach for the dictioanry, which informed me that the word describes great luxury, or persons who are addicted to great luxury, named for a Greek town that was was renowned as a center of luxury. The new car guide was using the word to describe the interiors of the super-expensive automobiles such as Aston-Martins or Bentleys.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Maybe it's because the word resembles "satyr", but I wouldn't describe a car as sybaritic. A private railroad car with a large platform bed, red curtains, and mirrors would be more like it to me. But that's my private take. As Alfred Hitchcock once said, "Jeder hat seinem Geschmuck."
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
of interest (at least to me) is that this (plus inflected forms) is the only common(!) word that begins with this morpheme (unless you count sybil and sybotic 8).
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Jeder hat seinem Geschmuck
"Everyone has his Geschmuck"?
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
While we await BYB's final word on Hitchcock's German, I would guess that it means "Each to his own" ...
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
It's a play on words: either, as stated, circa 'Each to his own' (taste = Geschmack) OR, Each to his own jewellery/decoration (jewellery = Schmuck)
aside: I've never quite got over 'Schmuck' for something that should be beautiful, its a bit like the German word for butterfly. I use Juwelen if possible but that's closer to jewels in English.
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Hmm...
Between my brother and I, we've adapted the word "Schmuck" to mean "dollars". I think it came from "buck" and the old-fashioned "smackers" or "smackeroos". They sort of combine to give "schmuck". As in, "This cost me ten schmucks!"
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289
veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 1,289 |
Hitchcock's Geschmuck You're right; it was his tongue-in-cheek translation of chacun à son goût. He pronounced Geschmuck to rhyme with the Yiddish schmuck, which added something to the wordplay, but I'm not sure what. This was one of his typical closing comments on his weekly show, sometime in the '50s. I can still see in my mind the black-and-white, snowy picture of him delivering this pronouncement in an off-hand fashion, but I have absolutely no recollection what the show was about.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
Between you and me, how did schmuck * ever morph from "jewelry" [nod-to-across-Pond-spellers emoticon] to "jerk" (as in: the guy's a real schmuck")?
--- *Ænigma: Schnabel
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Joined: Nov 2000
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veteran
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veteran
Joined: Nov 2000
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Schmuck Can't help you; I know very little about Yiddish. I believe that schmuck can have the same meaning as putz which, I believe, is a contemptuous word for penis.
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