șmecher

Forms

șmecher m or n (feminine singular șmecheră, masculine plural șmecheri, feminine/neuter plural șmechere)^[1] Regional variants are jmecher, smecher, smicher, șmicher and zmecher; slang clips it to șme and șmec.^[2][3]

Etymology

Most dictionaries take it to be borrowed from German Schmecker (“a person of refined taste”).^[4][5][2][6] Tiktin only says that the form matches the German word.^[3] Scriban thought of a lover of fine food, Șăineanu of a wine taster.^[7][8] Wiktionary instead gives borrowed from Yiddish שמעקער (shmeker).^[1]

Graur noted that Bulgarian has the same word with the same sense, Bulgarian шмекер (šmeker), and judged it unlikely that the two languages borrowed it independently; he made Romanian the intermediary.^[9] He also suggested that the word may be a back-formation from șmecherie, itself an alteration of the older teșmecherie “trickery”.^[9] The word is also found as Serbo-Croatian šmeker and Macedonian шмекер (šmeker).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Tiktin's first record is Barcianu's dictionary of 1868, with the sense “sly, crafty”.^[3] The DLR's first quotation is from Ispirescu, who calls some people „mai șmecheri decât cărturarii cei vechi” “craftier than the scribes of old”.^[6][8]

Semantic evolution

The core sense is someone who can get out of any difficulty and cannot be fooled, with a pejorative shade of a trickster who knows how to fix things for himself.^[6][4] The DLR also records a showy young man who tries to impress with impertinent wit, such as Bart's șmecher de port of Brăila.^[6] Recent slang applies it to things that are very good or stylish, as in un telefon șmecher, recorded in the press from 2008.^[10][1]

Timeline

• 1868 – in Barcianu's dictionary.^[3]
• 2008 – șmecher “very good, cool” of objects in the press.^[10]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (often as a noun) crafty, sly: able to get out of difficulties and hard to fool; clever, resourceful.^[4][2][1]
2. (colloquial, slang) Very good, stylish, cool: o mașină șmecheră.^[10][1]

Noun

1. (colloquial) A wiseguy, someone who handles any situation by cunning, often by questionable means.^[6][1]

Word family

• șmecherie
• șmecheresc

Related words

• teșmecherie

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 1108
3. ^ a b c d Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. șmecher
4. ^ a b c DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 1090
5. ^ Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. șmecher
6. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. șmecher
7. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1282
8. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 598
9. ^ a b Graur, Alexandru (1975), Alte etimologii românești, București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. șmecher
10. ^ a b c Dimitrescu, Florica (1997), Dicționar de cuvinte recente, 2nd ed., București: Logos (with the 3rd ed., 2013, in CLRE), p. s.v. șmecher