Schlemiel
/ʃləˈmiːl/noun
A clumsy, unlucky, or inept person, especially one who repeatedly makes foolish mistakes.
Did you know?Schlemiel comes from Yiddish, where it likely entered through a Hebrew name tradition, and its comic meaning grew in Jewish storytelling as a label for the hopelessly unlucky loser.
Etymological Timeline
Biblical Hebrew
Heb
Šĕmūʾēl
“A Hebrew personal name, traditionally understood as meaning 'name of God' or 'heard by God'.”
Post-Biblical Hebrew / Rabbinic tradition
Heb
šlemil
“A foolish or unlucky man; a bungler.”
Yiddish
Yi
shlemiel
“A clumsy, bungling, hopelessly unlucky person.”
19th Century
English
schlemiel
“Borrowed from Yiddish into English with the sense 'fool' or 'inept person'.”
Modern English
Eng
schlemiel
“A clumsy, unlucky, or inept person.”