schlimazel

English

Etymology

Yiddish שלימזל‎ (shlimazl), from Middle High German slim (“crooked”) and Hebrew מזל‎ (mazzāl, “luck”)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃləˈmɑːzəl/

Noun

schlimazel (plural schlimazels)

1. (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.

Alternative forms

• schlimazl
• shlimazel
• shlimazl
• shlemozzle

Related terms

• schlemiel, shemozzle

Translations

a chronically unlucky person

• Danish: ulykkesfugl c
• Dutch: pechvogel (nl), schlemiel (nl)
• German: Pechvogel (de) m
• Italian: sfigato (it) n

• Serbo-Croatian: баксуз n (baksuz)
• Spanish: gafe (es) m
• Yiddish: שלימזל‎ m (shlimazl)