Schlimazel

Pronunciation: shluh-MAH-zul
Definition: a consistently unlucky person.
Example Sentence: He got hit by a bus? Twice? Once while crossing the street and then again while in the ambulance going to the hospital. Poor schlimazel.

Some Fun Thoughts:

This word comes to us pretty literally from the German schlimm, meaning “bad” and Hebrew מזל, meaning “luck.”

We here at The Daily Yiddish actually have a favorite schlimazel, and that’s George Costanza, Seinfeld’s self-proclaimed “short, stocky, slow-witted bald man.” I didn’t think about George’s schmazelness until I read Jewish Comedy (A Serious History) by Jeremy Dauber. Dauber, in a paragraph dedicated to the issue, puts plainly and simply all of George’s bad luck:

“Handcuffed to the bed in his underwear? Check. Fiancée dies by licking toxic envelopes he picked out for their wedding invitations? Check. Shrinkage? Check.”

“Victory,” Dauber explains, “is not in the schlimazel’s DNA.” It is also probably good to point out that George is very close to an American schmuck. He does, after all, pick the toxic stamps because they are the cheapest. But the universe does seem to hate George, and I hope you have a better day today than George ever would.