Finally, an example of the use of "schieve" (or "skeeve") spoken on broadcast TV

[Tony The Ice Man]

I've mentioned in the past on this ancient newsgroup that the Italian
word "schifo" entered into the American lexicon during the past century
of Italian immigration and was transformed into a verb, "to schieve," or
"to skeeve." The spelling is not fixed. Typically the accompanying frase
is something like "it skeeved me out" or "I schieve that." You probably
won't find it in dictionaries. I'm not sure of that. I haven't searched
any dictionaries for it for a long time.

Although the word was primarily used in the New York/New Jersey
metropolitan area, initially by Italian-Americans, it has propagated
into common speech and you can even hear it said by newscasters. Even
so, many Americans have no idea what this word is or what it means.
That's especially true the further you get from the area of its origin.

Perhaps when I've mentioned this word in the past you've been amused or
bemused, or you did not care, or you found it irrelevant, but the
transformation of the word from the Italian to the English, along with
the change in usage, has interested me as I've found it said in larger,
and national venues. Often the person saying it doesn't know that it's
not a real English word and has no idea about its Italian root.

Occassionally a national newscaster will say it, and it happened again
on Thursday while I was on a transcontinental flight. This time, I took
note of the event and later found the clip of MSNBC newscaster Rachael
Maddow using it with facility. She was born in Castro Valley,
California, far from the eastern dialect mix.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#46246644

Rachael says the word at 2:05 minutes into her presentation.

[Tony The Ice Man]

On 2/3/2012 8:18 PM, Tony The Ice Man wrote:
> Typically the accompanying frase
>
> Occassionally

Sorry about the misspellings. I'd blame it on my exposure to Italian but
there's only one "s" in the Italian "occasione" too.