Shmatte

Pronunciation : Sh-matt
Definition: a rag or old garment.
Example Sentence: Mom! It’s not a shmatte. They’re pre-torn jeans… Gosh!

Some Fun Thoughts:

This is another fun s-word today. (I’ll move on to another letter tomorrow, but my brother took a lot of fun words so I’m in the s section of my dictionary and I’m likin’ what I’m seein’.)

Shmatte is an old hoodie. It’s a rag to clean your house. It’s a bird. It’s a plane. No, it’s just a sweater that was eaten by moths.

But, as your Daily semi-depressant, I should mention the complex history of the word. The word was also frequently used in Holocaust survivor testimonies to describe the clothing Jews ended up wearing because of horrible conditions in concentration camps and ghettoes, according to Dr. Avinoam Patt, the director of the Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life at the University of Connecticut. For example, when Jews had no shoes, they would wrap “shmattes” around their feet to keep warm.

You see, the Yiddish language has a beautiful and complex history, and the flexibility and breadth of its usage reflects the flexibility and breadth of those who speak it. It’s a humorous word with dark undertones. It’s comedic and serious. Like all of us, it’s complex, and that is part of what makes language beautiful.