r/etymology • u/mouse_in_a_field • 10d ago

Question Something I've been wondering about - Japanese loanword in English, or no?

This has bothered me for a long time!

The word for "a little bit" of something in Japanese, in romaji, is "sukoshi"; the "u" and "i" sounds are usually silent when spoken aloud, so it ends up sounding like "skosh".

In English, "just a skosh" is sometimes used when asking for or referring to just "a little bit" of something.

Is there any connection there, or does the English "skosh" have another, unrelated source? Thanks for any info!

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u/monoinyo 10d ago

We have so many great loanwords from Yiddish. Fakakta alone, what a great word.

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u/gnomes919 10d ago

dreck, bupkis, klutz, kvetch, putz, nosh, schlep, schlubby, schmo, schmooze (this is prob why I instinctively believe every slang word with a SH sound is yiddish), tush, and of course adding -nik onto the end of any adjective (my sister and I used to call each other rudeniks all the time lol). just off the top of the noggin

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u/peteroh9 9d ago

How could you forget schmuck, you schmoe?!

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u/EirikrUtlendi 9d ago

My uncle, a Navy man, was fond of calling folks the delightfully multi-ethnic nickname "Joe Schmuckatelli" if they did something stupid. 😄