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Is "schmeggegie" used in plural, "schmeggegum"?

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Chris Tsao

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Oct 29, 2006, 9:40:17 AM10/29/06
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I heard someone on the radio use schmeggegie in plural. It sounded like
"schmeggegum." Is this correct? And did I spell it correctly?

Barry Goldstein

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Nov 2, 2006, 2:16:53 PM11/2/06
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"Chris Tsao" <rigid...@aol.com> wrote:
>I heard someone on the radio use schmeggegie in plural. It sounded like
>"schmeggegum." Is this correct? And did I spell it correctly?

It sounds like the fellow on the radio was trying to give it a Hebrew
plural ending (--im). But according to Harkavy's dictionary, the
plural is just -s, so shmegege, shmegeges.

Note that the word shmegege is formed from megege, meaning booby,
fool, idler, etc., as in the disparaging form "money, shmoney".

BG

Barry Goldstein <bag(at)shore(dot)net>
Pequod Software, Newtonville, MA

Chris Tsao

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Nov 9, 2006, 3:25:28 PM11/9/06
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Barry Goldstein wrote:
> "Chris Tsao" <rigid...@aol.com> wrote:
> >I heard someone on the radio use schmeggegie in plural. It sounded like
> >"schmeggegum." Is this correct? And did I spell it correctly?
>
> It sounds like the fellow on the radio was trying to give it a Hebrew
> plural ending (--im). But according to Harkavy's dictionary, the
> plural is just -s, so shmegege, shmegeges.
>
> Note that the word shmegege is formed from megege, meaning booby,
> fool, idler, etc., as in the disparaging form "money, shmoney".

The guy on the radio was saying that he was in some public place and
people were walking on the wrong side of a staircase and so a man
called out to them, "schmeggum schmeggum." I could be wrong, but I
think that the D.J. was alluding to how he's heard the word used
plurally like this before.

Barry Goldstein

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Nov 12, 2006, 1:25:17 PM11/12/06
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"Chris Tsao" <rigid...@aol.com> wrote:
>The guy on the radio was saying that he was in some public place and
>people were walking on the wrong side of a staircase and so a man
>called out to them, "schmeggum schmeggum." I could be wrong, but I
>think that the D.J. was alluding to how he's heard the word used
>plurally like this before.

I don't know what the D.J. was thinking. "Schmeggum" has lost an
entire syllable and uses the wrong plural form. Not even Yinglish.

Never mind the bad transcription. And I must say I wasn't aware that
staircases had wrong sides.

Barry Goldstein <barry_goldstein(at)post(dot)harvard(dot)edu>
Pequod Software, Newtonville, MA

Chris Tsao

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Nov 13, 2006, 2:38:02 PM11/13/06
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Barry Goldstein wrote:
> Not even Yinglish.

True. I did Yahoo, Google Web and Group searches for it and nothing
came up.

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