Shmendrik (), also rendered as schmendrick or shmendrick is a

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

word meaning a stupid person or a little hapless jerk ("a pathetic sad sack"). Its origin is the name of a clueless

mama's boy ''Mama's Boy'' is a 2007 American comedy-drama film starring Diane Keaton and Jon Heder, and features music by Mark Mothersbaugh. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures for a limited release to certain regions of the United States. ...

played by Sigmund Mogulesko in an 1877 comedy ''

Shmendrik, oder di komishe Chaseneh (, ) is an 1877 comedy by Abraham Goldfaden, one of the earliest and most enduring pieces in Yiddish theater. The title role of Shmendrik was originally written for the young Sigmund Mogulesko, and derived from a character Mogulesko did when aud ...

'' (''Schmendrik or The Comical Wedding'') by

Abraham Goldfaden Abraham Goldfaden (; born Avrum Goldnfoden; 24 July 1840 – 9 January 1908), also known as Avram Goldfaden, was a Russian-born Jewish poet, playwright, stage director and actor in Yiddish and Hebrew languages and author of some 40 plays. Goldfad ...

. The play was inspired by a sketch presented by Mogulesco at an audition before Goldfaden. Since then the word was often used as a name in the works of

Jewish humour The tradition of humor in Judaism dates back to the compilation of the Torah and the Midrash in the ancient Middle East, but the most famous form of Jewish humor consists of the more recent stream of verbal and frequently anecdotal humor of Ashke ...

. Regarding the perception of the word, ''

The Joys of Yiddish ''The Joys of Yiddish'' is a book containing a lexicon of common words and phrases of Yinglish—i.e., words originating in the Yiddish language that had become known to speakers of American English due to the influence of American Ashkenazi Jew ...

'' lexicon stresses the meagerness of shmendrick compared to other Jewish ''schm-''words for luckless persons: "A shmendrik is a small, short, weak, thin, a young ''nebekh''". This is directly opposite to '' mentsh'' (more commonly spelled as "mensch") which, in short, means a "real" man of upstanding character and a person to emulate.

Notable usages

*''

'', original usage * Shmendrick is a " wise Man of Chelm" in the 1999 Canadian animated comedy '' Village of Idiots'' * Schmendrick the Magician, wizard from the fantasy novel ''

The Last Unicorn ''The Last Unicorn'' is a fantasy novel by American author Peter S. Beagle and published in 1968, by Viking Press in the U.S. and The Bodley Head in the U.K. It follows the tale of a unicorn, who believes she is the last of her kind in the ...

'', which was made into an animated film and had a sequel '' Two Hearts''. The author, Peter S. Beagle, describes the choice of the name as borrowed from the Yiddish term, which he describes as "somebody out of his depth, the boy sent to do a man's job, someone who has expanded to the limits of his incapacity".Beagle, Peter S. (2007). ''The Last Unicorn''. Deluxe Edition. New York: Roc Books. *Shosshi Schmendrik is a socially awkward, shy carpenter in the 1899 play '' Children of the Ghetto''

References

{{reflist Yiddish words and phrases Jewish comedy and humor Archetypal fools

Notable usages

See also

References