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There's at least three etymologies. The one you usually see is to connect it with German Schmuck 'ornament, decoration, jewels' (English smock is cognate with the German word); another one is in Kluge, from Slovenian smok 'fool'; and finally an origin in Slavic smok 'snake, dragon' (this is the one that the A-H gives). Of the two Yiddish dictionaries I have, neither Weinreich and Harvaky list the word. (This is weird since Harkavy isn't that squeamish and does list shmue 'cunt' and pots (pl. pets) 'penis; fool.) The vowel is problematic. I've always heard the word pronounced as /Sm@k/ and never /Smuk/, but then pots came into English as /p@ts/, too. shmuts 'dirt, filth' came in as /Smuts/, so I think that the Yiddish word should be shmok. I'm just not sure, but I lean toward the 'snake, dragon' rather than the 'jewels' etymology.
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted Civilian inselpeter 01/22/04 07:31 PM Re: Civilian Faldage 01/22/04 07:40 PM Re: Civilian Capfka 01/22/04 07:43 PM Re: Civilian wwh 01/22/04 08:08 PM Re: Civilian musick 01/22/04 09:17 PM Re: Civilian Jackie 01/23/04 01:35 AM Re: Civilian inselpeter 01/23/04 02:31 AM Re: Civilian Jackie 01/23/04 03:06 AM Re: Civilian Wordwind 01/23/04 03:13 AM Re: Civilian Faldage 01/23/04 12:13 PM Re: Civilian inselpeter 01/23/04 01:36 PM Re: Schmuck Faldage 01/23/04 01:38 PM Re: Schmuck maverick 01/23/04 02:03 PM Re: shmok jheem 01/23/04 03:09 PM Re: shmok of troy 01/23/04 05:53 PM Re: shmok jheem 01/23/04 06:04 PM smock smock smock smock smock Sparteye 01/23/04 07:06 PM Re: smack jheem 01/23/04 07:14 PM Re: shmok inselpeter 01/23/04 07:15 PM Re: Civilian Jackie 01/23/04 02:16 PM Re: Civilian Father Steve 01/23/04 05:24 PM Re: Civilian inselpeter 01/23/04 07:17 PM Re: Civilian musick 01/23/04 07:25 PM Re: Civilian jheem 01/23/04 07:31 PM Re: Civilian Faldage 01/23/04 07:39 PM Re: Civilian musick 01/23/04 08:09 PM Re: Civilian inselpeter 01/23/04 10:02 PM Re:Military wow 01/23/04 03:07 PM Re: Civilian tsuwm 01/23/04 08:12 PM Re: Civilian Zed 01/23/04 08:40 PM Re: Civilian inselpeter 01/23/04 10:05 PM Re: Civilian Bingley 01/24/04 12:19 AM Re: Civilian belMarduk 01/24/04 04:17 AM Re: Civilian Wordwind 01/25/04 01:37 AM Re: did someone say this already? Buffalo Shrdlu 01/25/04 01:40 AM Re: Civilian Father Steve 01/25/04 03:18 AM Re: Civilian hibernicus 01/26/04 03:18 PM Re: Civilian Faldage 01/26/04 03:24 PM Re: Civilian Solamente, Doug. 01/27/04 12:21 AM Re: Civilian jheem 01/27/04 01:31 PM Re: Civilian TEd Remington 01/27/04 12:50 AM Re: ROTK Buffalo Shrdlu 01/27/04 10:27 AM
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