also shmuck, "contemptible person," 1892, from East Yiddish shmok, literally "penis," probably from Old Polish smok "grass snake, dragon," and likely not the same word as German Schmuck "jewelry, adornments," which is related to Low German smuck "supple, tidy, trim, elegant," and to Old Norse smjuga "slip, step through" (see smock).
In Jewish homes, the word was "regarded as so vulgar as to be taboo" [Leo Rosten, "The Joys of Yiddish," 1968] and Lenny Bruce wrote that saying it on stage got him arrested on the West Coast "by a Yiddish undercover agent who had been placed in the club several nights running to determine if my use of Yiddish terms was a cover for profanity." Euphemized as schmoe, which was the source of Al Capp's cartoon strip creature the shmoo.
"[A]dditional associative effects from German schmuck 'jewels, decoration' cannot be excluded (cross-linguistically commonplace slang: cf. Eng. 'family jewels')" [Mark R.V. Southern, "Contagious Couplings: Transmission of Expressives in Yiddish Echo Phrases," 2005]. But the English phrase refers to the testicles and is a play on words, the "family" element being the essential ones. Words for "decoration" seem not to be among the productive sources of European "penis" slang terms.
双语例句
1. He's such a schmuck!
他真蠢！
来自《权威词典》
2. What schmuck would fly a plane into the Trade Center?
什么样的蠢货会把飞机开到世贸中心 呢 ?
来自电影对白
3. I called in from my body shop, and Jericho made me sound like a schmuck.
我从我的车身修理厂打来的, 耶利哥在我听来就是个蠢货.
来自电影对白
4. Before long, she realized she had married a real schmuck.
没多久, 她就发现她嫁了一个道道地地的讨厌鬼.
来自互联网
5. Sandra: Isn't Lisa his girlfriend? What a schmuck!