schlemiel. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

schlemiel

SYLLABICATION:	schle·miel
PRONUNCIATION:	shl-ml
VARIANT FORMS:	also shle·miel
NOUN:	Slang A habitual bungler; a dolt.
ETYMOLOGY:	Yiddish shlemíl, perhaps from Hebrew lmî’l, my well-being is God, Shelumiel (a character in the Bible, Numbers 7:36) : lmî, my well-being ( lôm, well-being; see lm in Appendix II + -î, my) + ’l, God; see l in Appendix II.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.