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__NOTOC__ Schmuck or shmuck in American English is a pejorative, meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word entered the English language from Yiddish (שמאָק, ''shmok''), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but its original meaning in Yiddish is penis.〔Gross, David C. ''(English-Yiddish, Yiddish-English Dictionary: Romanized )'' Hippocrene Books, 1995. p.144. ISBN 0-7818-0439-6〕 Because of its vulgarity,〔Rosten, Leo. ''The Joys of Yiddish''. New York, Pocket Books, 1968. pp. 360-362〕 the word is euphemized as ''schmoe'', which was the source of Al Capp's cartoon strip creature the shmoo.〔("Schmuck" ). ''dictionary.com''. Retrieved 17 Jan 2011.〕 Variants include schmo and shmo. In Jewish homes, the word was "regarded as so vulgar as to be taboo".〔Rosten, Leo. ''The New Joy of Yiddish''. Crown Publishers, New York, 2001. pgs. 78, 162. ISBN 0-609-60785-5〕 Lenny Bruce, a Jewish standup comedian, wrote that the use of the word during his performances in 1962 led to his arrest on the West Coast "by a Yiddish undercover agent who had been placed in the club several nights running to determine if () use of Yiddish terms was a cover for profanity".〔Paley, Maggie. (''The Book of the Penis'' ) New York: Grove Press, 2000. p.78. ISBN 0802136931〕 ==Etymology== In the German language the word ''Schmuck'' means "jewelry, adornment".〔("Schmuck" ) ''Leo – Online German-English Dictionary''. Retrieved 13 Mar 2010, the pp. 360-362〕 The etymology of the pejorative meaning is a matter of some disagreement. The lexicographer Michael Wex, author of ''How to Be a Mentsh (And Not a Shmuck)'', writes that the Yiddish term and the German term are completely unrelated. "Basically, the Yiddish word comes out of baby talk," according to Wex. "A little boy’s penis is a shtekl, a 'little stick'. Shtekl became shmeckle, in a kind of baby-rhyming thing, and shmeckle became shmuck. Shmeckle is prepubescent and not a dirty word, but shmuck, the non-diminutive, became obscene."〔Goldberg, Jeffrey. ("Sister Schmuck Takes A Stand" ). ''The Atlantic'' (May 2011)〕 However, according to Leo Rosten in "Hooray for Yiddish!", the pejorative German "schmuck" would be ''Schmock'', closer to the original Yiddish word. The transition of the word from meaning "jewel" to meaning "penis" is related to the description of a man's genitals as "the family jewels".〔Rosten, Leo. ''Hooray for Yiddish!'' New York: Simons and Schuster, 1982. ISBN 0-671-43025-4〕 The ''Online Etymology Dictionary'' indicates that the term derives from Eastern Yiddish ''shmok'', literally "penis", from Old Polish ''smok'', "grass snake, dragon",〔("Schmuck" ) in Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 17 Jan 2011.〕 but Leo Rosten cites Dr. Shlomo Noble of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research as saying that ''shmok'' derives from ''shmuck'' and not the other way around.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Schmuck (pejorative)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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