[Ads-l] antedating schnook

[Laurence Horn]

For the uninitiated, there is in fact no etymological relation between “Chinook” (a variety of salmon named for the indigenous people once living along the Columbia River) and “schnook” (apparently from the Yiddish “shnuk”, an elephant’s trunk, whence(?) a sucker or dupe).  A phonological connection, yes, but semantic, not so much.  

LH


> On Jan 16, 2024, at 8:18 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> 1920: OED
> 
> 1916 _Boston Herald_ (Apr. 26) 9: Al Keough and Joe Cohan gave a funny
> sketch called "The Live One and the Schnook."
> 
> Cf.
> 1891 _Daily Independent_ (Helena, Mont.) (May 28) 5: Lake Superior trout,
> white, black bass, pike, schnook, salmon.
> 
> 1913 _Curtis [Neb.] Enterprise_ (March 21) 3: SALMON--Adams sells the best
> schnook for 11c.
> 
> 1916 _Kalamazoo Gazette_ (May 24) 4: Baked Fresh Caught Schnook* Salmon
> --Menu Card / *Restaurant English for Chinook.
> 
> If there's any connection, it could be via the once common "poor fish."
> 
> In its ety. conjectures, OED fails to observe the existence of the surname
> "Schnook."
> 
> JL
> 
> -- 
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
> 
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org