Thordic
01-21-2003, 11:18 AM
Ok, I've been pondering this for a while and I'm sure someone must know the answer.
The word schevatz, often used to describe men of less than steller reputation, morals, hygiene, or any combination thereof, is used often in North Jersey, and I'm sure its used elsewhere as well.
As far as I can figure, its either a corruption of Italian, most likely from a Sicilian dialect, or it's a Yiddish word.
Everyone so far seems to think its Italian, but I can't seem to pin down the root. I studied italian for three years, but thats real italian, sicilian is a very corrupted dialect that I probably wouldn't understand if spoken to me, so if its Sicilian theres a good reason why I wouldn't know the root.
I'm not discounting Yiddish either, because the word sounds a lot like other Yiddish words, and a lot of the slang in English comes from Yiddish.
So does anyone out there have a definitive answer, perhaps a better spelling, or can contribute to this in any way? I'd like to get this sorted out :)
The word schevatz, often used to describe men of less than steller reputation, morals, hygiene, or any combination thereof, is used often in North Jersey, and I'm sure its used elsewhere as well.
As far as I can figure, its either a corruption of Italian, most likely from a Sicilian dialect, or it's a Yiddish word.
Everyone so far seems to think its Italian, but I can't seem to pin down the root. I studied italian for three years, but thats real italian, sicilian is a very corrupted dialect that I probably wouldn't understand if spoken to me, so if its Sicilian theres a good reason why I wouldn't know the root.
I'm not discounting Yiddish either, because the word sounds a lot like other Yiddish words, and a lot of the slang in English comes from Yiddish.
So does anyone out there have a definitive answer, perhaps a better spelling, or can contribute to this in any way? I'd like to get this sorted out :)