A.Word.A.Day--schmegeggy

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Nov 26, 2010

This week's theme
Words from Yiddish

This week's words
schmeer
noodge
shamus
golem
schmegeggy

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

schmegeggy or schmegegge

PRONUNCIATION:

(shmuh-GEG-ee)

MEANING:

noun:
1. A stupid person.
2. Nonsense.

ETYMOLOGY:

Formed on the pattern of other Yiddish words starting with schm-, for example, schmuck. Also see meshuga. First recorded use: 1964.

USAGE:

"Dr. Eric Kandel^*: I was a schmegeggy. To think that each one of these complex mental structures had a single locale and that I could find them in six months was absurd. I learned to be more realistic."
Claudia Kalb; Interview: Biology of the Mind; Newsweek (New York); Mar 27, 2006.
*2000 Nobel Prize in physiology / medicine

"What did you have to do with it? Your parents were Mormon. What kind of schmegeggy is this?"
Jess Stearn; Soulmates; Bantam; 1984.

Explore "schmegeggy" in the Visual Thesaurus.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done. -Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, poet (1807-1882)

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