shemozzle

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

shemozzle (sheh-MAWZ-l) - n., a noisy confusion or dispute, muddle, uproar.


Unlike most terms borrowed from Yiddish, this is not used much in American English -- it's mostly British and Australian usage. This is possibly because it was borrowed in the 19th century, earlier than the bulk of Yiddish's influence on American speech. (I'm not finding a year, though -- does anyone have access to a dictionary that has it?) Note that the meaning has drifted: Yiddish שלימזל (shlimazl) means misfortune, coming from Hebrew שלא מזל (shellōmazzāl), which parses out as "from bad luck". So, yes, same luck root as mazel tov.

I had to struggle through the shemozzle in the lobby to get out of the hotel, with the cops only a few seconds behind me.

---L.

Comments

[nerdfury.livejournal.com]

Well, that is kind of the point of my little community here.

[james0289.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is, but assumptions about words being used more in other people's Englishes, when speakers of those Englishes have never heard that word before, can sound a bit... strange.

[nerdfury.livejournal.com]

This makes little sense.

[james0289.livejournal.com]

Not really -- apparently it's a common feature of British English to say "different to" rather than "different from", and to write "-ise" instead of "-ize" (at least in a general US perception of British English), even though, if anything, I read "different from" just as often as "to", and the OED uses "-ize" as the main spelling and lists "-ise" as a variation.
Sometimes, people's perceptions of others' Englishes don't always fit with those of the speakers themselves, and, as far as I see it, there's nothing nonsensical in finding those (former) perceptions strange.