[?] "A nickel a shtickel" (1946)

[Peter A. McGraw]

Except I don't think "a nickel a shtickel" is an instance of the "x-schmx"
pattern.  It simply means  "a nickel a piece," using the diminutive form of
"shtick" 'piece'.  (Cf. south German Stück - Stückl~Stückrl.)

Peter Mc.

--On Monday, February 14, 2005 7:52 AM -0500 Barnhart
<barnhart at HIGHLANDS.COM> wrote:

> A brief note on sch-~schm- appears in Wentworth & Flexner (p. 606).
>
>
> David
>
> barnhart at highlands.com
>
> American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on Monday, February 14,
> 2005 at 2:59 AM -0500 wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Bapopik at AOL.COM
>> Subject:      "A nickel a shtickel" (1946)
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> -------
>>
>> Maybe Fred can use this rhyme in his Yiddish quotations section. I just
>> added it to my web site (www.barrypopik.com).
>>
>>
>> "A nickel a shtickel."
>>
>> New York delis used to feature these signs. It meant that they were
>> selling the ends of a salami for five cents.
>>
>> It was a good rhyme and a good business.
>> ...
>> ...
>> ...
>> ...
>> <i>New York City Folklore</i>
>> edited by B. A. Botkin
>> New York: Random House
>> 1956
>> [From "The Jewish Delicatessen," by Ruth Glazer, in <i>Commentary on the
>> American Scene: Portraits of Jewish Life in America</i> (1953). This was
>> originally published as "From the American Scene" in the magazine
>> <i>Commentary</i>, Vol. 1 â?¢ March 1946 â?¢ No. 5]
>>
>> Pg. 370: "A Nickel a Shtickel"
>> Pg. 371: And invariably on the glass-topped counter is a plate with small
>> chunks of salami. In the old days the plate always carried a sign, "A
>> Nickel a Shtickel." (A most convenient - and profitable - way of
>> disposing of the ends of the salami, too.) This immortal rhyme succumbed
>> during the [Second World] war to the free verse of "Have a Nosh - 10c."
>> ...
>> ...
>> ...
>> 15 August 1952, Zanesville (OH) Signal, "Walter Winchell On Broadway"
>> column, pg. 4, col. 4:
>> Harry's Delicatessen (on 47th off B'way) still features "nickel for a
>> shtickel" - chunks of salamee.
>> ...
>> ...
>> 2 April 1972, New York <i>Times</i>, pg. A13:
>> There was Rosen's Delicatessen in Queens Village, where you got a small
>> hunk of salami for five cents - "a schtickel for a nickel," he called it.
>> ...
>> ...
>> 7 July 1982, New York <i>Times</i>, pg. C1:
>> "MENTALLY, I'm always noshing," said Mayor Koch, explaining the conflict
>> he has between loving to eat and wanting to keep his weight down. "What I
>> mentally nosh on most used to be called 'a nickel a schtickel' - those
>> small end pieces of salami that were sold on top of the counters in New
>> York delis for 5 cents."
>> ...
>> ...
>> 4 November 1984, New York <i>Times</i>, "True Confessions of a Deli
>> Addict" by Nora Ephron, pg. 425:
>> Sometimes I would chew on a miniature salami called a "schtickel" (there
>> was a sign at Linny's that read: "A nickel a schtickel is a rhyme, now a
>> nickel a schtickel is a dime") and press my nose against the glass case
>> as a counterman sliced the Nova on the diagonal and laid it on sheets of
>> waxed paper.



*****************************************************************
Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************