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'Schnockered' - derivation?

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halcombe

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Aug 1, 2002, 10:53:58 PM8/1/02
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The word is a not uncommon (Google gave c600 items on both Web and NG
searches) synonym for 'drunk', apparently. But, where does it come
from?

As always with 'sch-' words, thoughts immediately turn to Yiddish. So
I pull out my battered copy of Leo Rosten's 'The Joys of Yinglish'
(not to be confused with his 'Joys of Yiddish') to find - nothing.

[Rosten, BTW, is hot on the idea that, in such words, the 'c' is
wrong. So, 'shmuck', not 'schmuck', etc. The Yiddish letter at the
front of such words is 'shin' - which is an 'sh' sound. And the 'c' is
a nonsense in words not derived from German (eg 'borsht'). That's his
argument, anyway - which I buy, failing a better.]

Perhaps, Leo nodded. Or it's from some other Germanic tongue. Or it's
a wholly native AmE concoction, fake Yiddish. (As sometimes one gets
fake Cockney rhyming slang.)

John Dean

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Aug 2, 2002, 7:44:23 AM8/2/02
to
halcombe wrote:
> The word is a not uncommon (Google gave c600 items on both Web and NG
> searches) synonym for 'drunk', apparently. But, where does it come
> from?
>
OED says a humorous (?) variant of 'snockered' which may, in turn, derive
from 'snookered'
--
John Dean
Oxford
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Donna Richoux

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Aug 13, 2002, 6:14:07 AM8/13/02
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halcombe <halc...@subdimension.com> wrote:

> The word is a not uncommon (Google gave c600 items on both Web and NG
> searches) synonym for 'drunk', apparently. But, where does it come
> from?
>
> As always with 'sch-' words, thoughts immediately turn to Yiddish. So
> I pull out my battered copy of Leo Rosten's 'The Joys of Yinglish'
> (not to be confused with his 'Joys of Yiddish') to find - nothing.

Cassell's shows no Yiddish connection. It says:

snockered/schnockered adj [1970s+] drunk [? dial. snock, a blow]

>
> [Rosten, BTW, is hot on the idea that, in such words, the 'c' is
> wrong. So, 'shmuck', not 'schmuck', etc. The Yiddish letter at the
> front of such words is 'shin' - which is an 'sh' sound. And the 'c' is
> a nonsense in words not derived from German (eg 'borsht'). That's his
> argument, anyway - which I buy, failing a better.]
>
> Perhaps, Leo nodded. Or it's from some other Germanic tongue. Or it's
> a wholly native AmE concoction, fake Yiddish. (As sometimes one gets
> fake Cockney rhyming slang.)

My guess is that the initial "sh" sound comes from imitation of a drunk
person's speech.

Best -- Donna Richoux

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