[Ads-l] Antedating orthographic "schmo."

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED offers {schmooh}, not quite the same thing, from 1937.

1940 Evening Leader and Daily Corning [N.Y.] Democrat (Aug. 30) 4: In his
typical Brooklyn brogue, as he described it, "I look like a Pitkin Avenue
schmo."

Not well known is the existence of Schmoes in the 1860's:

1861 Dawson's Fort Wayne Daily Times (Feb. 2) 3: List of Marriage
Licenses...Lewis Schmoe to Christina Bratmuller.

1866 Chicago Tribune (Dec. 30) 4: The corner store...was occupied as a
family grocery, by Frederick H. Schmoe.


JL
--


"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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