Page 1 of 1

SCHMOOZE

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 6:56 am
by Slava

• schmooze •

Pronunciation: shmuz • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb

Meaning: 1. To engage in a long, casual conversation, to chat, to gossip. 2. To chat up, to converse with in order to gain some advantage.

Notes: Here is yet another contribution to English from Yiddish. It is clearly a part of all English dialects now. It comes with a participle, schmoozing, which serves as an adjective and activity noun. A schmoozer is someone who schmoozes frequently and effectively.

In Play: Schmoozing takes place everywhere, at home ("Billy, see it you can schmooze mom up for $5 so we can go to the movie"), at work ("Schmoozing will get you nowhere at this place. You are far more likely to get promoted if you just keep your nose to the grindstone."), and, of course, on the hustings: "Sidney, you have to spend more time schmoozing millionaires if you want to get elected."

Word History: Today's Good Word, as mentioned above, comes to us from Yiddish, from the word schmues "a chat", the noun for the verb shmuesn "to chat". Yiddish gathered this word from Hebrew shêmuça "report, rumor, something heard", the passive participle of shama "hear, heard". The same root produced the name Ishmael. This name in Hebrew is yishmaçel "God heard", from yishmaç, an archaic past tense of shama "hear, heard" + 'el "God". (Jeremy Busch, a Grand Panjandrum in the Alpha Agora, didn't have to schmooze us at all to get us to run today's amusing Good Word.)

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 12:41 pm
by LukeJavan8
New one to me. Thanks! Never heard it that I can think of.

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Wed Oct 23, 2013 2:22 pm
by Perry Lassiter
In the Jewish faith the shema, Deuteronomy 6:4, is their watchword. The translation of the first few words is "hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one."

The Hebrew word for name is similar: shem. My Hebrew teacher said "your name is your shame" as a mnemonic. The Spanish "como se llama" literally means how are you called. Of course, we say what is your name?

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 2:17 am
by Philip Hudson
Someone please give me a nice sounding, nice meaning English word that is taken from Yiddish. Today's good word is nauseating (also an unpleasant word but not Yiddish). As far as I know I have never used a word from Yiddish in conversation or in writing that wasn’t discussing the word. I’m not anti-Semitic. I also like Hebrew.

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:33 pm
by LukeJavan8
French is similar: 'je m'appelle" (I call myself.....).

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 12:40 pm
by Slava
Someone please give me a nice sounding, nice meaning English word that is taken from Yiddish.
That depends on your definition of nice sounding. Perhaps mensch will suit?

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:31 pm
by Philip Hudson
Slava: Mensch is the English word taken from a Yiddish word. According to a Yiddish dictionary, in our alphagbet it should be spelled mentsh.
And yes, the word meets my definition and auditory standards. I knew it, I just didn't think of it.

I didn't say I don't know any Yiddish words in English. I just prefer not to use them. I live in Texas and few people here know any English words that come from Yiddish.

My Yiddish speaking Jewish friend in New York told me there were no Jews in Texas. If there were, he pronounced, they would starve to death because there are no rabbis in Texas to make the food kosher.

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 7:48 pm
by Perry Lassiter
He is probably jesting or he has a thing about reform Jews. The latter are more liberal, and a Monroe Rabbi told me they had to be reform, because there were not enough Jews to support the Jewish kosher store.

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Thu Oct 24, 2013 10:11 pm
by Philip Hudson
Perry: He had a "thing" about every Jew that didn't cotton to his personal Rabbi.

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 4:53 am
by bnjtokyo
Dear Mr Hudson,

How about "lox" and "bagel"? I don't know if they fulfill your sound requirement, but they sure taste good.

Dear Mr Javan8,

How about the following headlines from the NY Times:
Dec 28, 2011: "Bipartisan Agreement: Obama Isn't Schmoozing"
Oct 16, 2012: "Romney Donors Meet to Schmooze . . . and Raise More"
Or The Economist:
Sep 3, 2013: "The Canadian prime minister dispatched convoys of ministers to Washington, DC, to schmooze their counterparts."
Or the Musical/film "Funny Girl" (1964)
Eddie (played by Lee Allen in the movie) says "We'll sit around and schmooze" (Scene 6 I think)

Aug 7, 2013: "Even if Obama abstains from the vodka, it wouldn't hurt to schmooze a little with Putin . . . ."

Re: SCHMOOZE

Posted: Fri Oct 25, 2013 1:16 pm
by LukeJavan8
thanks ! !