Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Yiddish ·1930s
Schmaltz
from שמאַלץ (shmalts)
- Meaning
- Excessive sentimentality, especially in music or film.
- Source word
- שמאַלץ (shmalts)
- Route into English
- Yiddish *shmalts* (rendered chicken fat, from Middle High German *smalz*, fat) → English literally in kosher cooking, metaphorically for syrupy sentimentality (something that "pours thick").
- Arrived
- 1930s
From Yiddish
Mass migration from Ashkenazi Eastern Europe to New York (1880–1920) funnelled Yiddish into American English, from where it diffused globally.
English borrows.
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