| 释义 |
schlemiel colloq.|ʃləˈmiːl|
Also schlemihl, shlemiel.
[Yiddish, possibly ad. Heb. Shelumiel, name of a person in the Bible (Num. i. 6) said by the Talmud to have met with an unhappy end; perh. influenced by the name of the eponymous hero of A. von Chamisso's Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte (1814).]
An awkward, clumsy person, a blunderer; a ‘born loser’; a ‘dope’ or ‘drip’. Also attrib.
1892I. Zangwill Childr. Ghetto I. i. i. 30 The withered old grandmother..cursed her angrily for a Schlemihl. 1898A. M. Binstead Pink 'Un & Pelican xi. 247 He also was what the Yids call a shlemiel; no matter what he turned his hand to, nothing ever came of it. 1932N.Y. Times 10 Nov. 23/7 If they expect to beat me by having their names writ in, they're schlemiels—saps, if you get me. 1941B. Schulberg What makes Sammy Run? iv. 68 Don't talk like a schlemiel, you schlemiel. Sounds like you're letting them push you around. 1959Times Lit. Suppl. 6 Nov. p. xxxv/2 Bellow's..free-swinging translation of ‘Gimpel, the Fool’—probably the best schlemiel story in the literature. 1963T. Pynchon V. i. 37 Only something that, being a schlemihl, he'd known for years: inanimate objects and he could not live in peace. 1969L. Michaels Going Places 21 A hundred fifty-five pounds of stomping shlemiel. 1972Listener 14 Sept. 339/3 A schlemiel is a man who falls on his back and breaks his nose. Or you can say ‘When a schlemiel leaves the room, you feel as if someone came in.’ 1973New Society 11 Oct. 95/1 The choice of making a fool of himself or being made a fool of by others, being a schmuck or a schlemihl. 1978I. B. Singer Shosha iii. 50 You should have taken the whole five hundred. To him that's a trifle. He'll think you're a shlemiel. |