• ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org
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    1 day ago

    The “Schof” is not drived from the German “Schaf” but from Yiddish. The older generations used it to describe someone who’s a useless idiot. E.g. when. someone fucks up something easy and obvious

    • FishFace@piefed.social
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      23 hours ago

      But Yiddish is itself a Germanic language, and modern German dialects like Bavarian do have “Schof” = “Schaf” = “sheep”. Is there a better etymology for Schof here? And Seckl < Säckle < Sack would be perfect for scrotum too, and in high German you can call someone “du Sack” to mean they’re an idiot also.

      • ComfortableRaspberry@feddit.org
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        23 hours ago

        I looked it up again:
        It’s derived from the Yiddish word “Schofel” which itself is already an insult and closer to the German word “Lump” and the English “rascal”(?).

        If you want a literal translation for Schofseckl I’d go for “sack full of useless rags”.

        And Seckl < Säckle < Sack would be perfect for scrotum too

        No, the meaning of “Sack” alone, without context is that of a soft, loosely shaped container. If “Sack” is used as a short version for “Hodensack” then yes, it can be used as an insult but that’s not the case here.
        “Seckl” is more similar to the Bavarian/Austrian “Sackl” or “Packl” it’s just a bag.