Schmaltz

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Schmaltz

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sat Apr 12, 2014 10:55 pm

• schmaltz •

Pronunciation: shmahlts • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: 1. Rendered goose or chicken fat, though it originally meant the fat from any animal. 2. Maudlin sentimentality.

Notes: Although schmaltz is not usually taken from ham, it does come from hamming it up, playing the audience, resorting to romantic claptrap. The adjective for this noun is schmaltzy and, if you need to separate the senses of this word, the noun schmaltziness refers only to the second sense above.

In Play: When candidates for public office begin telling you about their families and add the family dog to the picture, we are being fed schmaltz straight from the pot: "Ralph's speech started out bad enough, then ended with some schmaltz about giving candy to kids when he was fighting in Grenada." Elevator music is notoriously schmaltzy: Jackie Gleason was popular in the 1950s for his schmaltzy 'mood music', played by a huge orchestra heavy with strings.

Word History: Today's Good Word is yet another gift from Yiddish, this time shmalts, taken from German Schmalz "rendered animal fat". The German word comes from the verb schmelzen "to melt". This word has a Fickle S (which became SCH in German), an S that comes and goes for reasons of its own. The same root shows up in Latin without the S in mollis "soft", which we can see in words like emollient, mollify, and mollusk. We find it in English without the S, too, in melt, meld, and mild. (It is like falling in the schmaltz jar when Carol DeBaets sends us wonderful Good Words like today's.)
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Re: Schmaltz

Postby Slava » Mon Sep 27, 2021 7:36 am

I expect a proper dose of schmaltz is what makes for a good chicken noodle soup.

Also, given the related words, a dash of schmaltz does serve to melt hearts. Too much is quite cloying, though.
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Re: Schmaltz

Postby David Myer » Fri Oct 01, 2021 3:41 am

So what turns a herring into a schmaltz herring? Apparently (well, according to Google) it is harvested just before spawning when it is at its fattiest. I love 'em.

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Re: Schmaltz

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Oct 06, 2021 9:14 pm

The Good Doctor has selected the 100 most beautiful words in English. He did a good job. If the 100 ugliest words in English were selected, schmaltz would bid fair to be included.
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Re: Schmaltz

Postby David Myer » Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:37 am

No Philip, you can't call schmaltz ugly. A schmaltz herring is one of the most beautiful taste sensations. Anyway, plenty of other German words that are used in English are uglier in sound. Gemutlicht for a start.

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Re: Schmaltz

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Oct 11, 2021 3:55 am

Dave you added a letter to Gemütlich. I think it is a lovely word with a lovely meaning. Gemütlichkeit is even lovelier. Schmaltz is "American" via Yiddish via German.
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Re: Schmaltz

Postby David Myer » Mon Oct 11, 2021 5:38 am

Bravo Philip, I stand properly corrected. And your version has the umlaut. Very posh.

So I have had to look up the distinction between gemutlich and gemutlichkeit. And I can't really see one.

But I do promise to try to enjoy the word's beauty in future.

Interestingly I always thought that beer had to be involved for gemutlich to occur. I thought it was men having a noisy, beery, singalong with camaraderie (rather an ugly scene for me). But the internet tells me it is all about being comfortable and cosy. Is it right?

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Re: Schmaltz

Postby bbeeton » Mon Oct 11, 2021 10:47 am

Gemütlich is an adjective, Gemütlichkeit is the associated noun. Indeed, both convey a picture of a parlor or a chimney nook, with comfortable inhabitants enjoying a cup of tea together. (I guess that picture is more English than German. Transpose the scene to a Viennese coffee house.) No beery rowdiness. (Well, maybe beer, but if there's rowdiness, it's cheerful and friendly. Think the Hofbräuhaus in München.)

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Re: Schmaltz

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Oct 11, 2021 6:02 pm

bbeeton: You are right on! Thank you David. Umlauts are a part of the language. Posh is never heard here in the hinterlands and there are no posh things in the hinterlands. Yet, a posh approval from the wider world is welcome. Don't tell any of my redneck cousins. They are apt to say, La di da! :D
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Re: Schmaltz

Postby David Myer » Wed Oct 13, 2021 6:01 am

Being a bit la-di-da myself, I suspect I would enjoy you, Phillip, ahead of your cousins.

Thanks bbeeton. I am struggling to learn English; German is way beyond my aspirations. Is the -keit part equivalent of -ness in English?

Cheerful, cheerfulness?

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Re: Schmaltz

Postby bbeeton » Wed Oct 13, 2021 9:53 am

David, indeed yes, -keit does for all practical purposes (that I can think of) correspond to -ness in English. Nice example.

(I don't claim fluency in German, but I've studied or been exposed to quite a few languages, and claim that if faced with a restaurant menu in a "Western" script -- Latin, Greek, or Cyrillic -- I will be able to find something I will most likely enjoy, and certainly not starve.)

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Re: Schmaltz

Postby Debbymoge » Wed Oct 13, 2021 2:27 pm

Bbeeton, Can you see the green glow emanating from this post? It's my jealousy at your three script fluency!
I'm struggling to hang on to enough English to make myself understood.

sigh
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Re: Schmaltz

Postby David Myer » Wed Oct 13, 2021 7:39 pm

I am with you Debby. Bbeeton, you would have had no problem in my situation a few years back.

On my own in the backblocks of France, I called into a little local "table d'hote" establishment and perused the menu. Looking for key words, I recognised the boeuf, poisson, poulet and agneau. But so focussed was I on the key words that I paid scant attention to context.

I opted for the lamb. "Tete d'agneau?" the waiter queried. "Oui, s'il vous plait?" He went away and I considered whether the tete part, which I knew to be head, meant head or more likely an interesting way to present maybe a loin of lamb. Anyway, I was presented with a huge bowl of gruel, perhaps broth is a better word, with various things floating in it. I recognised the tongue and brain (I could enjoy them), and the eye and ear, but the other things I could only guess - various glans, I suppose. I consumed all the unrecognisable bits, but the eye and ear I confess were too much for me. Oh for confidence in my language skills.

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Re: Schmaltz

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Oct 13, 2021 10:28 pm

The South is known for eating stuff other people won't eat. On New Years' Day we eat some side meat [sow belly], okra, black-eyed peas. cornbread and sweet potato pudding. When the conquering Yankees came south, Southerners told them that black-eyed peas were only for the cows to eat, in hopes they wouldn't put them to the torch. Some southerners eat chicken feet, pickled pigs feet and hog lights [lungs]. I don't go that far. My daddy grew up in the dense forests of East Texas aka the Big Thicket. He says they subsisted on cathead biscuits and saw-mill gravy. The biscuits were called that because they were as big as cat heads. Saw-mill gravy is a "white sauce" made with flour and Borden's canned milk. There were no cows in the thicket. Daddy had his first beefsteak In San Antonio when he was 14 years old. I would go hungry if all we had was sheep meat. I was tricked into tasting mutton stew once. Barbequed cabrito [little goat] is good eatin'.
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