From Job 8:15 to Li'l Abner - in Yiddish

As promised, today we look at some of the sexual words that have come to English from Yiddish, as I discovered in reading Just Say Nu by Michael Wex (Harper Collins, New York, 2008).

Let’s begin by recounting an interesting story about a biblical reference that provides the Yiddish phrase for impotence that is literally “someone who leans against his house.” How does that mean impotent? Wex explains on page 232:

His real problem is impotence, thanks to the standard Yiddish trick of quoting only the first half of a biblical verse to whose second half you’re making reference. Yishooen al bayseh, “He leans against his house” is the beginning of Job 8:15, the rest of which reads “And it does not stand up. He takes hold of it, but it does not rise.”

Now, to the words putz, schmuck, and schlong.

Putz, schmuck and schlong all have Yiddish origins, and all refer to the penis. It’s interesting how the words for the male sex organ have come into use in English, while words for female genitalia do not; female parts are a subject to be avoided, to such an extent that the most common word for vagina (VA-GEE-NEH with a hard G in Yiddish) is simply dortn, which means “there.”

Putz (pots in Yiddish) in English is used of a fool or a jerk. The word has been used in several ways, according to etymonline.com:

Since at least 1873 it has been used by the Amish (Pennsylvania Dutch, as my ancestors are known) to describe the “Nativity display around a Christmas tree.” This use was based on the German word meaning of finery or adornment, so the nativity adorned the tree.

In 1934 the word was used in the Yiddish sense of penis in the Henry James novel Tropic of Cancer, which was banned in the United States until the Supreme Court declared it wasn’t obscene in 1964.

In 1964 the word took on the more acceptable English meaning of an obnoxious man or a jerk.

A schmuck is an obnoxious or contemptuous person, although the uses I’ve heard (generally of me…) were less severe than the definition indicates. “You’re such a schmuck” is commonly used as a somewhat friendly/humorous reference to someone’s non-sexual actions of a fool. But it’s etymology is sexual. Schmuck, or shmok in Yiddish, is considered a quite obscene reference to the penis, much stronger in Yiddish than in English. Its first written use in English was in 1897, and probably originated in the Old Polish word smok, which is used for a grass snake or dragon (the connection to penis becomes obvious). Leo Rosten (in The Joys of Yiddish, 1968) wrote it was so vulgar its use was taboo, and the controversial comedian Lenny Bruce’s use of it on stage on the West Coast got him arrested.

An interesting development of the word is that it became euphemized as schmoe, a word that is less objectionable and is used of a foolish person. Its first appearance in English was in 1948. The cartoonist Al Capp also began using it in 1948 for a creature in his cartoon strip “Li’l Abner,” the schmoo.

We’ve gone on [sch]long enough that schlong will have to wait until next week.