A.Word.A.Day --schmutz

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schmutz or shmutz

PRONUNCIATION:

(shmuhts, shmoots)

MEANING:

noun: Dirt, filth, or any undesirable substance.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Yiddish shmuts. Earliest documented use: 1968.

USAGE:

"The Broadway local line has the dirtiest cars -- with only 27 percent of them rated as 'clean' in a new subway seat and floor 'schmutz survey'."
Vinita Singla and Jeane MacIntosh; R Gets 'F' For Filth; New York Post; May 6, 2011.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

If you pray for rain long enough, it eventually does fall. If you pray for floodwaters to abate, they eventually do. The same happens in the absence of prayers. -Steve Allen, television host, musician, actor, comedian, and writer (1921-2000)

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