Date:  Sat, 17 Feb 1996 23:11:56 -0700

From:  Rudy Troike <RTROIKE[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU>

Subject: Mea culpa: <schlubby> it is.



My thanks to Seth Sklarey for coming up with a quote from Leo Rosten "The

Joys of Yiddish", which clearly identifies the source of the word in <zhlob>.

Also to E.W. Gilman, for correcting my erroneous recollection of "schluppy"

(a lesson to check my sources!) as properly <schlubby>.

    A couple of questions for E. W. Gilman: what are the earliest citations

on this, and is there a possibility that <zhlob> could be the source of <slob>

rather than the putative Irish source in <slab> "mud"? I infer from the

meanings of <zhlob> that <schlubby> means essentially someone who is a slob.

Would this be a valid guess?



    --Rudy Troike (rtroike[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ccit.arizona.edu)