schmo

• schmoe, shmo, shmoe

• IPA^(key): /ʃməʊ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ

From Yiddish, alteration of schmuck.^[1] Compare also Russian чмо (čmo, “jerk, schmuck”).

schmo (plural schmos or schmoes)

1. (US, slang, chiefly Jewish) A stupid, obnoxious, pathetic, or otherwise contemptible person; a schmuck.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:fool, Thesaurus:jerk, Thesaurus:worthless person

   • 2008, Ben Yagoda, chapter IV, in When You Catch an Adjective, Kill It, Crown, →ISBN:

     The poor schmo would immediately break down and confess that he did a lot of other bad things as well.

• schmuck
• Joe Schmo

See Joe Schmoe § Etymology; schmo in this sense may well be homonymic to schmo in the sense above.

schmo (plural schmos or schmoes)

1. (US, informal, derogatory or humorous) Any average Joe; any Joe Schmoe.

   I'm just an average schmo

   • 2010, Dana Milbank, Tears of a Clown, New York: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 31:

     Of his early childhood, he told the Deseret News of Salt Lake City: “I'm a schmo. My family never made more than $25,000 a year. We're all bakers for generations.”