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Schmuck, or shmuck, is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (Yiddish: שמאָק, shmok), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is a vulgar term for a penis.
Oy vey (Yiddish: אױ װײ) is a Yiddish phrase expressing dismay or exasperation. Also spelled oy vay, oy veh, or oi vey, and often abbreviated to oy, the expression may be translated as "oh, woe!" or "woe is me!" Its Hebrew equivalent is oy vavoy (אוי ואבוי, ój va'avój).
Shiksa (Yiddish: שיקסע, romanized: shikse) is an often disparaging [1] term for a gentile [a] woman or girl. The word, which is of Yiddish origin, has moved into English usage and some Hebrew usage (as well as Polish and German), mostly in North American Jewish culture.
Chutzpah (Yiddish: חוצפה - / ˈ x ʊ t s p ə, ˈ h ʊ t-/) [1] [2] is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. A close English equivalent is sometimes " hubris ". The word derives from the Hebrew ḥuṣpāh ( חֻצְפָּה ), meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity".
This is a list of words that have entered the English language from the Yiddish language, many of them by way of American English.There are differing approaches to the romanization of Yiddish orthography (which uses the Hebrew alphabet); thus, the spelling of some of the words in this list may be variable (for example, shlep is a variant of schlep, and shnozz, schnoz).
A Yiddish saying explains that "a schlemiel is somebody who often spills his soup and a schlimazel is the person it lands on". [3] The schlemiel is similar to the schmuck but, as stated in a 2010 essay in The Forward , a schmuck can improve himself while "a schlemiel, a schlimazel and a schmendrik are irredeemably what they are".
Shm-reduplication is a form of reduplication originating in Yiddish in which the original word or its first syllable (the base) is repeated with the copy (the reduplicant) beginning with shm-(sometimes schm-), pronounced / ʃ m /.
Oxford, and most other sources think that the word is derived from Scheuster, the name of an unscrupulous 19th century lawyer. There is no mention of it being used primarily by Yiddish speakers, although if it were, then the entry would more naturally belong in list of English words of Yiddish origin. RMoloney 11:20, 5 October 2005 (UTC)