Skeevy, scmuz and jag-off

[Paul Harm]

The somewhat recent discussion of "skeevie" led me to ping a friend, Ryan,
who is 27, grew up in Northeast Pennsylvania, and is
Italian-American.  When asked over e-mail if he had ever heard or used the
term and what he thought it meant, he confirmed it to be used something
like "icky" especially a "teen/pre-teen girl describing a guy."

In a subsequent message, Ryan brought up two other regionalisms.  The
latter, I am intimately familiar with, from living in Pittsburgh .  The
other (scmuz) is utterly foreign to me.  In his words:

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1. Scmuz (said ska-mutz): Word used in NEPA [Northeast Pennsylvania] for
the cheese on a pizza. It may actually come from scamorza, an Italian
cheese similar to mozzarella.  I've used it since birth - wondering if it's
used anywhere outside my region.

2. Jag-off: I've heard the word used here in NW Indiana. Wondering if it
moved here with the exodus of steelworkers from Pittsburgh when the mills
closed down. They say there are a lot of Pittsburghese down in the Hampton
Roads/Virginia Beach area - it would be interesting to see if it is used in
that area.

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I should add that "jag-off" is generally used to mean "an annoying jerk."

Paul
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Paul Harm
Web Developer, Off the Page Productions
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