Shmohawk

"Shmohawk" or "schmohawk" is a slang term that might have derived from "schmo", a slang term meaning "fool". cite book
year = 1989
title = Oxford English Dictionary, second edition
publisher = Oxford University Press ] The HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" gave the word recent fame, and HBO even sells a Curb Your Enthusiasm schmohawk mug. cite web url=http://store.hbo.com/sm-curb-your-enthusiasm-schmohawk-mug--pi-2972636.html] An earlier use of the word, however, comes from Saul Bellow's 1958 novel "Henderson the Rain King".

Use by Saul Bellow

In Saul Bellow's novel "Henderson the Rain King", the American protagonist Eugene Henderson ventures to Africa as an attempt to lessen the ennui that plagues him. There among the Wariri people, he finds himself in a rain ceremony trying to lift a very heavy statue of the goddess Mummah. As the crowd watches, Henderson feels a priest watching him and doubting Henderson's ability to lift the great statue. Henderson imagines that the priest silently says "And nevertheless you are a man. Listen! Harken unto me, you shmohawk! You are blind." cite book
author = Bellow, Saul
year = 1976
title = Henderson the Rain King
pages = 159
publisher = Avon Books ] Such slang is typical of Henderson's casual speech, which contrasts with both the grand philosophical themes of the novel and the amount of suffering Henderson feels that he experiences.

Although Henderson is Bellow's first non-Jewish character, the critic Steven Gould Axelrod, for one, has argued that Henderson is implicitly Jewish. [cite journal | author = Steven Gould Axelrod | title = The Jewishness of Bellow's Henderson| journal = American Literature
volume=47|year=1975|pages=439–443 | doi = 10.2307/2925345] Bellow's use of the faux-Yiddish term "shmohawk" could perhaps be used to support Axelrod's argument. On the other hand, the fact that Henderson imagines "shmohawk" as coming from the mind of a menacing Wariri priest could also show Henderson's distance from this term.

Use by Larry David

In an episode from season 6 of the HBO show "Curb Your Enthusiasm", main character Larry David struggles through traffic while his wife Cheryl tries to impress upon her husband the scale of tragedy caused by Hurricane Katrina. Larry yells out to another driver, "Hey dum dum. Go ahead. Move in," and this interaction reminds Larry that his father often used to call bad drivers "shmohawks."

The "schm-" prefix

"Shmohawk" or "schmohawk" is the word mohawk with the prefix "schm-." In English, this prefix has a mocking or ironic meaning. The "schm-" prefix's English language meaning is borrowed from the Yiddish language, in which the prefix has been used to similar effect. [cite journal | author = Elaine Gold | title = English Schmenglish| journal = Proceedings of the 2002 annual conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association
year=2002|pages=108–120]

ee also

"Henderson the Rain King"

"Curb Your Enthusiasm"

References

External links

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qws-4dOrBrU "Shmohawk" clip] from "Curb Your Enthusiasm" at YouTube.com
* [http://www.jewishfood-list.com/komedy/schmohawks01.html "Shmohawk" Indians joke] at Jewishfood-list.com