"Shamus (film) Shamus is a 1973 American comedy thriller film directed by Buzz Kulik, and starring Burt Reynolds and Dyan Cannon. New York private detective Shamus McCoy is called to the house of Hume, an eccentric diamond dealer, and is given the task of recovering some stolen diamonds. His investigation is thwarted at every turn and it is only when he is beaten by a gang of thugs to warn him off the job that he realizes that he's onto something really big. Using his friend Springy as well as Alexis Montaigne, the sister of a nightclub owner, McCoy digs"
"suggested that the main characters in the film might be more appropriately called ""shmendriks"". In bodybuilding culture, the term ""schmoe"", or ""smos"", is used to describe a person, often a wealthy man who is less muscular and weaker than bodybuilders, who pays bodybuilders money for private posing sessions, wrestling, and prostitution. Schmuck (pejorative) Schmuck, or shmuck, in American English is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (, ""shmok""), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is"
"Hoodlum A hoodlum is a thug, usually in a group of misfits who are associated with crime or theft. The earliest reference to the word hoodlum was in the December 14, 1866, ""San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin"" after the Hoodlum Band was arrested on December 13, 1866. Members of the gang were sentenced to the Industrial School for stealing clothes. The gang used many keys to enter hotel rooms and boarding houses. On December 14, 1866, Lazarus Moses was arrested for selling clothes stolen by the Hoodlum Band. Moses was fined $300. Moses's nickname was ""Fagin"". The public read about"
"Schmuck (pejorative) Schmuck, or shmuck, in American English is a pejorative term meaning one who is stupid or foolish, or an obnoxious, contemptible or detestable person. The word came into the English language from Yiddish (, ""shmok""), where it has similar pejorative meanings, but where its literal meaning is a vulgar term for a penis. The etymology of the word is a matter of some disagreement. Lexicographer Michael Wex, author of ""How to Be a Mentsh (And Not a Shmuck)"", has been quoted as saying that the Yiddish word ""shmok"" ""comes out of baby talk."" According to Wex, ""a little"
"word ""smuk"", which simply means beautiful. Because of its generally being considered a vulgarity, the word is often euphemized as ""schmoe"", which was the source of Al Capp's cartoon strip creature the shmoo. Other variants include ""schmo"" and ""shmo"". Leo Rosten writes in ""The Joys of Yiddish"" that schmuck is commonly viewed among Jews as an obscene word that shouldn't be said lightly. Lenny Bruce, a Jewish stand-up comedian, wrote that the use of the word during his performances in 1962 led to his arrest on the West Coast, ""by a Yiddish undercover agent who had been placed in the"
"that year's elections. It provides for civil and criminal penalties, including fines and prison terms of up to three years. The case's name has been found to be unintentionally humorous, since ""schmuck"", from the Yiddish word for ""penis"", is also a common term of abuse in American English. SCOTUSblog reporter John Elwood has referred to a """"Schmuck v. United States"" Memorial Worst-Case-Caption Award"" he supposedly gives each term. In a short 1993 ""Yale Law Journal"" article on the increasing use of Yiddish loanwords in American legal opinions, chief judge of the Ninth Circuit Alex Kozinski and UCLA law professor Eugene"
"club several nights running to determine if [his] use of Yiddish terms was a cover for profanity"". Although schmuck is considered an obscene term in Yiddish, it has become a common American idiom for ""jerk"" or ""idiot"". It can be taken as offensive, however, by some Jews, particularly those with strong Yiddish roots. Allan Sherman explained in his book ""The Rape of the A*P*E*"" that, if a word is used frequently enough, it loses its shock value and comes into common usage without raising any eyebrows. The term was notably used in the 2010 comedy film ""Dinner for Schmucks"", in"
"or feces with another liquid substance and throws it at a staff member when given the chance. In the state of California, for example, since 1998 a conviction for gassing has carried a sentence of up to five years segregation in prison. Gassing (prison slang) Gassing, also known as chucking, is prison slang for the act of throwing feces or some other bodily fluid such as urine, blood, semen, or saliva at a jail or prison staff member. Gassing is an act of rebellion by inmates against custodial staff and is a felony in most U.S. states. Victims of gassing"
"Gassing (prison slang) Gassing, also known as chucking, is prison slang for the act of throwing feces or some other bodily fluid such as urine, blood, semen, or saliva at a jail or prison staff member. Gassing is an act of rebellion by inmates against custodial staff and is a felony in most U.S. states. Victims of gassing are encouraged to undertake medical testing for possible infectious diseases. Gassing may occur spontaneously – such as when an inmate spits in the face of a correctional officer – or in a planned encounter – such as when an inmate mixes urine"
"Slut Slut is generally a term for a woman or girl who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous. It is usually used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of disparagement (slut-shaming). It originally meant ""a dirty, slovenly woman"", and is rarely used to refer to men, generally requiring clarification by use of the terms ""male slut"" or ""man whore"". The first recorded use of the word was a reference to a man, in Geoffrey Chaucer's ""The Canterbury Tales"", in which he is referring to the man's untidy appearance. ""Slut-shaming"" is a related"
"Slut-shaming Slut-shaming is the practice of criticizing people, especially women and girls, who are perceived to violate expectations of behavior and appearance regarding issues related to sexuality. The term is used to reclaim the word ""slut"" and empower women and girls to have agency over their own sexuality. It may also be used in reference to gay men, who may face disapproval for sexual behaviors considered promiscuous. Slut-shaming rarely happens to heterosexual men. Examples of slut-shaming include being criticized or punished for violating dress code policies by dressing in perceived sexually provocative ways, requesting access to birth control, having premarital,"
"Swish (slang) Swish is a US English slang term for effeminate behaviour and interests (camp), emphasized and sanctioned in gay male communities prior to the Stonewall riots. This behaviour is also described as being nelly in British English, and both terms are often considered to be derogatory. Being swish stereotypically includes a ""sashaying"" walk, and the use of falsetto voices, feminine pronouns, and superlatives. According to Martin Levine and Michael Kimmel in """": Although being butch was viewed as deviant and socially unacceptable by gay male society, being swish has since lost its mainstream gay status post-Stonewall, and in addition"
"Joe Shmoe Joe Shmoe (also spelled Joe Schmoe and Joe Schmo and ""Yo Hschmo""), meaning 'Joe Anybody', or no one in particular, is one of the most commonly used fictional names in American English. Adding a ""Shm"" to the beginning of a word is meant to diminish, negate, or dismiss an argument (for instance, ""Rain, shmain, we've got a game to play""). It can also indicate that the speaker is being ironic or sarcastic. This process was adapted in English from the use of the ""schm"" prefix in Yiddish to dismiss something; as in, ""Fancy, schmancy."" (Thus denying the claim"
"Prison slang Prison slang is an argot used primarily by criminals and detainees in correctional institutions. It is a form of anti-language. Many of the terms deal with criminal behavior, incarcerated life, legal cases, street life, and different types of inmates. Prison slang has existed as long as there have been crime and prisons; in Charles Dickens' time it was known as ""thieves' cant"". Words from prison slang often eventually migrate into common usage, such as ""snitch"", ""ducking"", and ""narc"". Prison slang, like other types of slang and dialects, varies by region. For that reason, the origins and the movement"
"Schlemiel Schlemiel (; sometimes spelled shlemiel or shlumiel) is a Yiddish term meaning ""incompetent person"" or ""fool."" It is a common archetype in Jewish humor, and so-called """"schlemiel"" jokes"" depict the ""schlemiel"" falling into unfortunate situations. The inept ""schlemiel"" is often presented alongside the unlucky ""schlimazel"". A Yiddish saying explains that ""a ""schlemiel"" is somebody who often spills his soup and a ""schlimazel"" is the person it lands on."" The ""schlemiel"" is similar to the ""schmuck"" but, as stated in a 2010 essay in ""The Forward"", a ""schmuck"" can improve himself while a ""schlemiel"" is ""irredeemably what they are."" While"
"Abomination (Bible) Abomination (from Latin ""abominare"", ""to deprecate as an ill omen"") is an English term used to translate the Biblical Hebrew terms shiqquts שיקוץ and sheqets שקץ, which are derived from shâqats, or the terms תֹּועֵבָה, tōʻēḇā or to'e'va (noun) or ta'ev (verb). An abomination in English is that which is exceptionally loathsome, hateful, sinful, wicked, or vile. The Biblical words usually translated as ""abomination"" do not always convey the same sense of moral exceptionalism as the English term does today, as it often may signify that which is forbidden or unclean according to the religion (especially ""sheqets""). Linguistically"
"Squaw The English word Squaw is an ethnic and sexual slur, historically used for Indigenous North American women. Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered offensive, derogatory, misogynist and racist. The English word is not used among Native American, First Nations, Inuit or Métis peoples. While a similar morpheme is found within some longer words in some of the Eastern Algonquian languages, these languages only make up a small minority of the languages spoken in the hundreds of Indigenous communities affected by this slur. Even in Algonquian, the words used are not the English-language slur, but longer,"
"Profanity in American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL), the sign language used by the deaf community throughout most of North America, has a rich vocabulary of terms, which include profanity. Within deaf culture, there is a distinction drawn between signs used to curse versus signs that are used to describe sexual acts. In usage, signs to describe detailed sexual behavior are highly taboo due to their graphic nature. As for the signs themselves, some signs do overlap, but they may also vary according to usage. For example, the sign for ""shit"" when used to curse is different from the"
"Richard Chase Richard Trenton Chase (May 23, 1950 – December 26, 1980) was an American serial killer who killed 6 people in the span of a month in Sacramento, California. He was nicknamed ""The Vampire of Sacramento"" because he drank his victims' blood and cannibalized their remains. Chase was a native of Santa Clara, California. He was abused by his parents; and, by the age of 10, he exhibited evidence of all three parts of the Macdonald triad: bed wetting, arson, and cruelty to animals, which is seen by some as possible indicators of future violent tendencies. In his adolescence,"
"Zips Zips (also Siggies or Geeps) is a slang term often used as a derogatory slur by Italian American and Sicilian American mobsters in reference to newer immigrant Sicilian and Italian mafiosi. The name is said to have originated from mobsters' inability to understand the faster-speaking Sicilian dialects, which appeared to ""zip"" by. Other theories include pejorative uses such as Sicilians' preference for silent, homemade zip guns. According to still another theory, the term is a contraction of the Sicilian slang term for ""hicks"" or ""primitives."" The older Sicilian mafiosi of the pre-Prohibition era known as ""Mustache Petes"" (who eventually"
"""Scrooge"" is used in English as a word for a person who is miserly and tight-fisted, in spite of the fact that Ebenezer Scrooge later reformed. The character is most often noted for exclaiming ""Bah! Humbug!"" despite uttering this phrase only twice in the entire story. He uses the word ""Humbug"" on its own on seven occasions, although on the seventh we are told he ""stopped at the first syllable"" after realizing Marley's ghost is real. The word is never used again after that in the book. A species of snail is named ""Ba humbugi"" after Scrooge's catchphrase. Ebenezer Scrooge"
"down the street dressed in barely-there clothes, as critics suggest. They’re fighting for the right to walk down the street. Period."" Besharmi Morcha () is most often translated into English as ""shameless protest"" or ""shameless front"". It has also been translated as “March of the Shameless” and ""Shameless Campaign"". Besharmi Morcha was chosen as the name in India to address its diverse cultural aspects and languages. The word ""slut"" does not translate directly or equivalently into Indian languages such as Hindi. The nearest equivalent direct translation of slut is ""ranɖii"" () meaning ""prostitute"". Organizers worried that observers would believe that"
"sign for ""shit"" when used to describe the bodily function or the fecal matter. Profanity in American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL), the sign language used by the deaf community throughout most of North America, has a rich vocabulary of terms, which include profanity. Within deaf culture, there is a distinction drawn between signs used to curse versus signs that are used to describe sexual acts. In usage, signs to describe detailed sexual behavior are highly taboo due to their graphic nature. As for the signs themselves, some signs do overlap, but they may also vary according to usage."
"Gerald Chapman Gerald Chapman (August, 1887 – April 6, 1926), known as ""The Count of Gramercy Park"",""The Gentleman Bandit"" and ""Gentleman Gerald"", was an American criminal who helped lead an early Prohibition-era gang from 1919 until the mid-1920s. Chapman was the first criminal to be dubbed ""Public Enemy Number One"" by the press. Gerald Chapman was born George Chartres in August 1887 to parents of Irish heritage. Arrested for the first time in 1902 at age fourteen, Chapman was incarcerated for most of his early adult life. While serving time for bank robbery, he was transferred from Sing Sing to"
"that something is fancy). While ""schmo"" (""schmoo,"" ""schmoe"") was thought by some linguists to be a clipping of Yiddish ""schmuck"", an etymology supported by the ""Oxford English Dictionary"", that derivation is not universally accepted. Joe Shmoe Joe Shmoe (also spelled Joe Schmoe and Joe Schmo and ""Yo Hschmo""), meaning 'Joe Anybody', or no one in particular, is one of the most commonly used fictional names in American English. Adding a ""Shm"" to the beginning of a word is meant to diminish, negate, or dismiss an argument (for instance, ""Rain, shmain, we've got a game to play""). It can also indicate"
"Faggot (slang) Faggot, often shortened to fag, is a pejorative term used chiefly in North America primarily to refer to a gay male. Alongside its use to refer to gay men in particular, it may also be used as a pejorative term for a ""repellent male"" or to refer to women who are lesbian. Its use has spread from the United States to varying extents elsewhere in the English-speaking world through mass culture, including film, music, and the Internet. The American slang term is first recorded in 1914, the shortened form ""fag"" shortly after, in 1921. Its immediate origin is"
"on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be."" Savage announced the winning entry, which defined ""santorum"" as ""the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes the byproduct of anal sex"". He created a web site, spreadingsantorum.com (and santorum.com), to promote the definition, which became a top Internet search result displacing the Senator's official website on many search engines, including Google, Yahoo! Search, and Bing. Savage offered in May 2010 to remove the site if Santorum donated $5 million to Freedom to Marry, an advocacy group for same-sex marriage. In September 2014 the hacker group"
"Skell Skell, as a stereotypical or archetypal designation, refers to a person who is homeless, vagrant or derelict. It is often used to connote such a person who is habitually engaged in small-time criminal activity, especially by one working as a con artist or panhandler In its modern form, the use of skell as a slang term in the United States appears to date only from the 1960s, most especially from New York City. The word has sometimes been used by the police officer characters on the TV shows ""NYPD Blue"", ""Third Watch"", ""Gotham"", """", and ""Blue Bloods"". The term"
"growing heroin distribution market (which had been peaking at $10 million a year). Ironically, Galante's Zip bodyguards were party to his murder. Galante was murdered for keeping all the heroin trafficking profits for himself. Zips Zips (also Siggies or Geeps) is a slang term often used as a derogatory slur by Italian American and Sicilian American mobsters in reference to newer immigrant Sicilian and Italian mafiosi. The name is said to have originated from mobsters' inability to understand the faster-speaking Sicilian dialects, which appeared to ""zip"" by. Other theories include pejorative uses such as Sicilians' preference for silent, homemade zip"
"Rastus Rastus is a pejorative term traditionally associated with African Americans in the United States. It is considered offensive. ""Rastus"" has been used as a generic, often derogatory, name for black men at least since 1880, when Joel Chandler Harris included a black deacon named ""Brer Rastus"" in the first Uncle Remus book. However, Rastus (a shortening of Erastus, the Greek name of, especially, Erastus of Corinth) has never been particularly popular as a black name. For example, the 1870 census reported only 42 individuals named Rastus in the United States, of whom only four were Black or mulatto. Rastus—as"
"The use and spelling of ""schmear"" or ""shmear"" in American English is a direct loanword from Yiddish, where its original usage referred to cheese. In modern usage it has extended to anything that can be spread, such as cream cheese spread upon a bagel. In some cases, it refers to ""an entire set or group of related things"", or the expression ""the whole shmear"". As a slang term, the word in Yiddish also refers to a slap on the face, primarily when disciplining young children. It can also refer to bribery, as a ""little extra"" spread on top. In card"
"Charles Schmid Charles Howard 'Smitty' Schmid, Jr. (July 8, 1942 – March 30, 1975), also known as ""The Pied Piper of Tucson,"" was an American serial killer. His crimes were profiled by journalist Don Moser in his article ""The Pied Piper of Tucson"", featured in the March 4, 1966 issue of ""Life"" magazine and are the basis for ""Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"", a short story by Joyce Carol Oates. In 2008, The Library of America selected Moser's article for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American True Crime. Charles Schmid was an illegitimate child who was"
"he was a strange, very reserved person constantly harassed by others, was called ""Sherman"" (an allusion to a character from ""American Pie""), as well as ""suingue"" (swing), because he had a limp leg, and was thrown into a garbage bin. In a video he had recorded two days prior to the shooting Oliveira stated: ""The struggle for which many brothers died in the past, and for which I will die, is not solely because of what is known as ""bullying"" [the English word]. Our fight is against cruel people, cowards, who take advantage of the kindness, the weakness of people"