putz

See also: Putz

English

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Yiddish פּאָץ (pots, “penis, fool”). Compare similar semantic developments in futz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʌts/
• Rhymes: -ʌts

Noun

putz (plural putzes)

1. (slang, derogatory) Fool, idiot.
2. (slang, derogatory) Jerk.

   Synonym: schmuck

   • 1997, David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:

     And, (4), we’re not really even seeing “characters” at all: it’s not Major Frank Burns, pathetic self-important putz from Fort Wayne, Indiana; it’s Larry Linville of Ojai, California, actor stoic enough to endure thousands of letters (still coming in, even in syndication) from pseudo-voyeurs berating him for being a putz from Indiana.

3. (slang) Penis.

   Synonym: schmuck

Derived terms

• putzhead, putz-head, putz head

Verb

1. (slang) Waste time.

   Stop putzing around.

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Pennsylvania German Putz; compare German Putz (“ornament, decoration, finery”), putzen (“to clean; decorate”). Compare the above.

Alternative forms

• Putz

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pʊts/
• Rhymes: -ʊts

Noun

putz (plural putzes)

1. A decoration or ornament in the Nativity tradition, usually placed under a Christmas tree.
   • 1995, Joe L. Wheeler, Christmas in My Heart, Book 4, pages 12-13:

     The American custom of erecting a putz seems to have originated with the Moravians but the custom long ago spread to non-Moravian households. Essentially, the putz is a landscape, built on the floor or on a table or portable platform.

Verb

1. (Pennsylvania Dutch) To go around viewing the putzes in the neighborhood.
   • 1947, Holiday - Volume 2, Issues 1-6, page 86:

     Once all good Moravians in Bethlehem went putzing between Christmas and Twelfth Night to take a look at their friends' cribs.

   • 1978, Mildred Jordan, The Distelfink Country of the Pennsylvania Dutch, page 141:

     Everyone in the Moravian settlements goes putzing, visiting others' works of art.

   • 1985, Richmond E. Myers, Christmas traditions: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, →ISBN, page 43:

     One Christmas custom that was very much the rage in the last years of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, was the putzing party. In the days when there were many putzes built in Bethlehem private homes, it was the practice to organize groups to wander around and visit the families who had erected these wonderful Christmas displays.

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Portuguese

Etymology

Probably a euphemistic form of puta.

Interjection

putz

1. (slang) Used to emphasize something that has gone wrong.

   Putz, meu carro quebrou.

   Damn, my car broke down.

Synonyms

• putz grila