shvitz

English

Alternative forms

• schvitz, schwitz

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish שוויצן (shvitsn), from Old High German swizzen (Modern German schwitzen), from Proto-Germanic *swait- (English sweat), from Proto-Indo-European *swoyd- (“to sweat”). Doublet of sweat.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʃvɪts/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪts

Noun

shvitz (countable and uncountable, plural shvitzes)

1. Sweat.
2. A traditional Jewish steambath of Eastern European origin.
   • 2007, Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, 4th Estate (2010), page 343:

     It was not, or not only, the heat and ripeness of the shvitz that were making Litvak’s pulse thrum and his head spin.

3. (by extension) A sauna or sauna session.
   • 2013 November 12, Gabe Liedman, “Old School” (15:48 from the start), in Brooklyn Nine-Nine‎^[1], season 1, episode 8, spoken by Jimmy Brogan (Stacy Keach):

     “Hey, hey, Jimmy Brogan. Thanks for meeting me.” “Welcome to the schvitz, kid. The most comfortable place on Earth. It's like crawling back into your mother.” “Is that something people wanna do?”

Translations

sweat — see sweat

steam bath

• Yiddish: שוויצבאָד f (shvitsbod)

Verb

shvitz (third-person singular simple present shvitzes, present participle shvitzing, simple past and past participle shvitzed)

1. (intransitive, informal) To sweat.
   • 2017, David Friend, The Naughty Nineties:

     Soon, the '80s and '90s guy was finding drums to pound and sweat lodges in which to shvitz out rivulets of shame.