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Examples
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The sheer number of names for a useless person, a shlemiel, a shlemazel, a shmendrik, a pisk malocheh, and much worse, all very colorful.
Marc Gopin: Beyond Jewish Blessings And Curses There Is Absolute Love Marc Gopin 2011
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“If you had to choose between shmendrik and shmerrel and shmegege—”
Kalooki Nights Howard Jacobson 2006
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Actually, Mr. Carell's character has a bit of the shmendrik about him because he seems quite stupid, and he is a hopeless shlimazl, with obvious bad luck.
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Oy vey, it's just me and Arlen Specter for the GOP Jews, and Specter got invited to their shande little party, that shmendrik.
The Aristocrats 2009
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I just wish the lady luck in not ending up looking like a ’shmendrik’ herself.
ibclc2 commented on the word shmendrik
I have no proof for this theory, but I think shmendrik was created for the combination of shlemeil and shlemazel. The shlemiel is the one who is clumsy or careless, and the shlemazel is the victim of the shlemiel, the hapless chosen-by-chance target who gets the soup spilled on him. There was no word for the individual capable of being both the perpetrator and the object, until shmendrik came along.
January 20, 2012