Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Yiddish ·1890s
Schmooze
from shmues
- Meaning
- Informal talk — Yiddish for "chat, conversation."
- Source word
- shmues
- Route into English
- Yiddish (from Hebrew *shemu'ot*, "things heard") → American English. Acquired its networking-at-a-cocktail-party connotation in 1980s business journalism.
- Arrived
- 1890s
From Yiddish
Mass migration from Ashkenazi Eastern Europe to New York (1880–1920) funnelled Yiddish into American English, from where it diffused globally.
English borrows.
Browse the full loanword atlas or explore another source language.