Shmohawk
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shmohawk or schmohawk is a slang term that might have derived from schmo, a slang term meaning fool.[1] The HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm gave the word recent fame, and HBO even sells a Curb Your Enthusiasm schmohawk mug. [2] An earlier use of the word, however, comes from Saul Bellow's 1958 novel Henderson the Rain King.
Contents |
[edit] Use by Saul Bellow
In Saul Bellow's novel Henderson the Rain King, the American protagonist Eugene Henderson ventures to Africa as an attempt to lessen the ennui that plagues him. There among the Wariri people, he finds himself in a rain ceremony trying to lift a very heavy statue of the goddess Mummah. As the crowd watches, Henderson feels a priest watching him and doubting Henderson's ability to lift the great statue. Henderson imagines that the priest silently says And nevertheless you are a man. Listen! Harken unto me, you shmohawk! You are blind. [3] Such slang is typical of Henderson's casual speech, which contrasts with both the grand philosophical themes of the novel and the grand scale of suffering Henderson feels that he experiences.
Although Henderson is Bellow's first non-Jewish character, the critic Steven Gould Axelrod, for one, has argued that Henderson is implicitly Jewish. [4] Bellow's use of the faux-Yiddish term shmohawk could perhaps be used to support Axelrod's argument. On the other hand, the fact that Henderson imagines shmohawk as coming from the mind of a menacing Wariri priest could also show Henderson's distance from this term.
[edit] Use by Larry David
In an episode from season 6 of the HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm, main character Larry David struggles through traffic while his wife Cheryl tries to impress upon her husband the scale of tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina. Larry yells out to another driver, "Hey dum dum. Go ahead. Move in," and this interaction reminds Larry that his father often used to call bad drivers shmohawks.
[edit] The schm- prefix
Shmohawk or schmohawk is the word mohawk with the prefix schm-. In English, this prefix has a mocking or ironic meaning. The schm- prefix's English language meaning is borrowed from the Yiddish language, in which the prefix has been used to similar effect. [5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ (1989) Oxford English Dictionary, second edition. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Template:Cite web url=http://store.hbo.com/sm-curb-your-enthusiasm-schmohawk-mug--pi-2972636.html
- ^ Bellow, Saul (1976). Henderson the Rain King. Avon Books, 159.
- ^ Steven Gould Axelrod (1975). "The Jewishness of Bellow's Henderson". American Literature 47: 439–443. doi:.
- ^ Elaine Gold (2002). "English Schmenglish". Proceedings of the 2002 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association: 108–120.
[edit] External links
- Shmohawk clip from Curb Your Enthusiasm at YouTube.com
- Shmohawk Indians joke at Jewishfood-list.com
