Where in the USA do people say things like “shmultz” and “smushed”?

22 comments

1. I’ve never heard either of those in the PNW

2. Do you mean “schmaltz”?

   For those two words, I would think anywhere in the US. Schmaltz is a Yiddish word for rendered chicken fat, but outside the context of food, you mostly hear it in the context of “schmaltzy”, which means “overly sentimental”.

   Yiddish words are going to be more prevalent in traditional Jewish enclaves (e.g. NYC), but there are quite a few words that have made it into common American usage as well.

3. *Smushed* is a common English word. It’s used in informal speech basically everywhere.

   *Shmultz* – not getting any results for that one, did you mean *schmutz* or *schmaltz*? They’re of Yiddish origin. A lot of Yiddish words are understood across the US but they’re more commonly used in places with a history of Ashkenazi Jewish immigration, like New York.

4. I’ve never lived anywhere people didn’t say both.

   “Schmaltz” is chicken lard, and comes originally from Yiddish. American English has lots of Yiddish loan words.

   “Smush” is a portmanteau of “smash” and “mush”.

5. Do you mean schmutz? That’s a [Yiddish slang](https://bestlifeonline.com/yiddish-words/) word.

   > Places you’ll find schmutz include on the sidewalk, inside the vacuum, and on a soiled T-shirt. So what is schmutz, exactly? It’s just a very Yiddish way of referring to a dirtying substance like dust, dirt, or—in the case of a dirty garment—tomato sauce.

   So you’ll definitely hear it where there are more Yiddish people, like NYC. But I’m not Jewish at all and live pretty far from NYC and it’s part of my vernacular. Schmutz is that dirty scummy stuff you can’t scrape off of your shoe, there’s just no better word for it.

   [Smushed is also smoosh](https://wikidiff.com/smoosh/smush) and it’s universal AFAIK.

6. Smushed- everywhere, more or less.

   Schmutz is Yiddish. NY, NJ, up this way, you’re pretty likely to meet people who at least know what that means. Though, tbh, most people would get it by context.

7. Are you asking where Yiddish is common? Literally everywhere in the US uses some Yiddish words- glitch and klutz are commonly used everywhere in the US

   More Yiddish words are spoken in NYC and NJ because we have the most Jews so their words entered our dialect of English more than any other dialect. It’s common to say things like “I had to shlep all the way up to Brooklyn to get this” in NYC and NJ, but uncommon in the rest of the US

8. NYC, NJ and parts of CT. This part of the country has the most yiddish influene afaik. You’ll also hear words like: shmuck, shtick, shpiel, shnozz, the list goes on… but it’s kinda dying out. The /sh/ sound is very prevalent around here even when it’s not spelled out in the word. For example “strong” becomes “shtrong” and “street” becomes “shtreet” , and sometimes to be over the top I’ve heard people say things like “shtop it”.

9. What in tarnation

10. Mostly around NYC, in my experience. Lots of Yiddish and other Jewish influence around there.

11. Schmutz is a German word for dirt. In the NYC region it entered English via Yiddish. It may be understood in other areas with German immigrants.

12. Smush is common English that is related to words like smash, mush, and mash.

    Words such as schmaltz, putz, kvetch, and schlemiel are Yiddish words that came here with Ashkenazi Jews from Europe and are most prevalently used by Jewish people, although they are common enough among non-Jews in areas with longstanding Jewish communities, and can be heard occasionally in areas like mine with very little historical Jewish presence, just through cultural diffusion.

13. Not unusual in places with high percentage German heritage populations. I was hearing schmutz, schmaltz, putz and verklempt in small town Wisconsin.

14. New York/New Jersey mostly.

15. I think you mean ‘Shmaltz” which is literally chicken fat but it’s also used in the same way as “saccharine”–like treacly and overly sentimental. Shmaltz has the added connotation of being ‘laid over’ thick (“Laying on the shmaltz”) , like chicken fat is. So the shmaltz has connotations of a heavy coating of artistic and pseudo-artistic crap over something purporting to be more profound.

    You also mean ‘shmushed”, another Yiddishism.

    Both are from Yiddish. “Shmushed” has spread through the country, like bagels lol.

    Many Yiddish words have become normal Americanisms. Other Yiddish words tend to be spoken much more in areas where there are much more Jews, like NYC.

16. shmultz = smudge? smut?

17. I’ve used smushed but never heard of shmultz

18. I say smushed and I’m in Virginia.

19. Schmaltz is a Yiddish word that made its way into general parlance. Not everyone uses the word, but I would wager 90% of Americans recognize its slang meaning in context. Few probably know the original meaning: rendered chicken fat.

    Smushed is a slang word that’s a combination of smashed and mush, and it’s used more by younger generations, but there is no geographical region to which it is isolated. It’s used commonly in social media, so pretty much everyone knows the meaning.

20. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

21. Here in NYC, we were always smushed on the train whenever we went down to Sammy’s for the schmaltz. Of course, every guy sharing the pole with me had shmutz all over his hands.

22. words like that (schmutz, schmalz, etc.) are common either where lots of Germans went, or in the New York area where they are taken from Yiddish (which is related to German)