hackleschmackle

[Erik Hoover]

My messages are coming out of order, I only see the RE: part of this
thread, so I don't know what sort of speakers are using
hackleshmackle, but my wife's maternal grandmother [German parents,
lifelong New Jersey resident] used an expression that I would write
out as 'schlachmachel'.

With my limited and somewhat formal German, I interpreted this as
'badly done' cf. schlecht+machen



On Jan 5, 2008, at 12:36 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: hackleschmackle
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> At 1/4/2008 08:17 PM, Mark Mandel wrote:
>> I understood it right away. 'Messed up', +/-. Maledited.
>
> My similar understanding came from "hack" and "smack" -- and the
> reduplication.
>
> Joel
>
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