English
schmaltz
Schmaltz may come from Yiddish שמאַלץ ‘grease, fat’.
- Yiddishmodernשמאַלץshmalts‘grease, fat’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2014schmaltz
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Yiddishmodernשמאַלץshmalts‘grease, fat’uncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 2014schmaltz
Earliest quotation: 2014, Melissa Clark, Schmaltz Finds a New, Younger Audience: “Even now, as medical science has given a nod…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *(s)meld- ‘to melt, smelt’
email, melt, mojo, molten, moll, mojito, milt, molt, 18 more
through Proto-Germanic *smeltaną ‘melt’
Today it means
noun Rendered chicken or goose fat.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Yiddish שמאַלץ / schmaltz