Shmoo

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Dr. Goodword
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Shmoo

Postby Dr. Goodword » Sun Mar 22, 2015 9:59 pm

• shmoo •

Pronunciation: shmu • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. Imaginary selfless creatures shaped like bowling pins with chubby legs that only desire to fulfill the material needs of humans. 2. A person who is a pushover to do things for anyone.
Image
Notes: The original shmoos live on air, are delicious to eat and are eager to be eaten. They have no bones, so there is no waste when eaten. They are gentle and playful, and their pelts make fine shoe leather. According to their creator, cartoonist Al Capp, they taste like chicken when fried, like steak, when baked, like catfish, when broiled. Raw, they taste like oysters on the half-shell. Although Capp used shmoon as the plural of today's Good Word, shmoos is now acceptable.

In Play: As The Baltimore Sun put in 2002, "The Shmoo . . . was one of history's most brilliant Utopian satires": "If you need anything at all, go find yourself a shmoo." Only one major dictionary carries an entry for this word; the editors of the rest seem to think this was a nonce word associated only with the now defunct comic strip. But we still have it: "Linda Hande is such a shmoo, she will do anything you ask her."

Word History: It seems to be clear to everyone that shmo "jerk, sucker" preceded shmoo and not the other way around. Both first appeared in print in 1948 according to the Oxford English Dictionary: shmo in March of that year; shmoo on August 31 in the comic strip Li'l Abner by Al Capp. Shmo, or schmo, is a euphemism for schmuck, which has a shady meaning referring to the male genitals in Yiddish. It is easy to see how Capp would take shmo and simply add another O to it. It makes all the more sense because schmo and schmuck both have the secondary meaning "jerk, sucker", which became their only meaning in English. Schmuck comes from the German word meaning "jewelry", used in Yiddish in the sense of "the family jewels"
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misterdoe
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Re: Shmoo

Postby misterdoe » Sun Mar 22, 2015 11:00 pm

I admit to being a little confused when you described OK as a verbal "shmoo" and so had to look up the word. I was still confused until I saw today's definition. I suspect that played a part in the selection for today's word.

LukeJavan8
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Re: Shmoo

Postby LukeJavan8 » Mon Mar 23, 2015 12:35 pm

Today being the birthday of "OK", I guess it is ok.
I never like the Shmoos, shoon or whatever.
I skipped "L'l Abner' when they were the subject
matter. I was probably too young to appreciate
the satire.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----

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Slava
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Re: Shmoo

Postby Slava » Tue Mar 24, 2015 7:40 am

Shmo, or schmo, is a euphemism for schmuck, which has a shady meaning referring to the male genitals in Yiddish. It is easy to see how Capp would take shmo and simply add another O to it.
It is also easy to use a wee bit of imagination to understand why a Shmoo looks the way it does. Image
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

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Re: Shmoo

Postby LukeJavan8 » Wed Mar 25, 2015 12:00 pm

I think when I was reading "Abner" and the Shmoo
appeared what irritated me the most was that
it was good for everything. That era of my youth
was not especially good and I was jealous, irritated
and most especially hateful, that something could
be so opposite of my life. Too young to understand
the satire of it.
-----please, draw me a sheep-----


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