schlimazel
English
Etymology
Yiddish שלימזל (shlimazl), from Middle High German slim (“crooked”) and Hebrew מזל (mazzāl, “luck”)
Pronunciation
Noun
schlimazel (plural schlimazels)
- (colloquial, chiefly US) A chronically unlucky person.
- 1962, Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle, in Four Novels of the 1960s, Library of America 2007, p. 46:
- I must have pressed two buttons at once, he decided; jammed the works and got this schlimazl’s eye view of reality.
- 1962, Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle, in Four Novels of the 1960s, Library of America 2007, p. 46:
Alternative forms
Related terms
Translations
a chronically unlucky person
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 “Words hardest to translate - The list by Today Translations”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)[1], 2010 August 16 (last accessed), archived from the original on 25 January 2009