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Comment by neartheplain | Hacker News Reader

Aside: I’m a native speaker of American English, and in all my years of reading and conversation I’ve never seen or heard the word “schtum.” Is it a regional thing?

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> Borrowed from Yiddish שטום‎ (shtum, “mute, dumb, voiceless”), from Middle High German stum, from Old High German stum. Cognate with German stumm, Dutch stom, Swedish stum. [1]

[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shtum#English

The funny thing is that in Slavic languages, the word for a German translates to "the mute one". For example, NEMec in Slovenian.

Mute, because he can't speak our language.

I've wondered why we have a different word for Germans but never realized that's where it comes from (if it's true).

I only knew it from Hungarian, which I guess is a slavic enough language to compare: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N%C3%A9meth:

In Hungarian, német means "German" (the word has Slavic origin, literally meaning "he does not speak", since German is not a Slavic language)

Hungarian isn't Slavic.

The word is probably borrowed into Hungarian from Slavic. We have a similar word in our language as well, but it's used as someone who doesn't understand. Also used interchangeably with Turk.

Do you mean Barbar?

No, it's very similar to nemec, basically the same thing also borrowed from Slavic. The "c" ending is pronounced as "ts". The full phrase goes like: "Why don't you understand, are you German/Turk?" (as in not understanding the language). There's also a place, a citadel and river with that name, which your ancestors might have been familiar with:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Neam%C8%9B_Citadel

Barbar means what it means in Greek, because that's where it's borrowed from.

Similarly, the word "barbarian" comes from the ancient Greeks describing the people who lived around them as sounding like they were saying "bar bar bar".

Funny, I always thought it came from the word Barba (hair/beard) because they considered them uncultured and unshaven.

Greeks were into beards big time.

That's amazing. Wiktionary backs you up on this and compares it to "bla bla bla".

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CE%B2%CE%AC%CF%81%CE%B2%CE...

It is true. Here's a map of what Germany is called by other countries in Europe: https://jakubmarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/germany-e...

Interesting that Finland/Estonia call them, essentially, Saxony.

The Latvian/Lithunian name for Germany is the only one I don't understand. Does anyone know?

According to Wikipedia [1], it’s a matter of some debate, with the theories being the (standard) corruption of a name for the first Western Baltic people encountered, or a take on the “unintelligible war cry” people from the Latvian root for speaking.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_Germany

Apparently it's most likely tied to the German municipality of Waake or the Swedish tribe of Vagoths. However most Lithuanians would likely explain it in the form of a joke - either about Germans being thieves ('vogti' = to steal) in reference to Teutonic/Livonic ordins, or about them being 'tough' or well armored ('vo kiets' ~= 'wow, tough/hard').

Another fun fact: at least in Croatia, we colloquially call them "schwabs" which originates from another group of germanic people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suebi

Can confirm (as a Slovenian), the term is used through the Balkans. For example, it is present in the old Serbian song:

Četrnaeste, četrnaeste, Švaba udario, (2x) Osamnaeste, osamnaeste, Srbin pobedio. (2x)

(In the 14th year, the Schwab struck. In the 18th year, the Serb won.)

https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ko_to_ka%C5%BEe,_Srbija_je_mal...

It comes from the fact that Germany didn't unify until very late, so the people were called by the small city-states that they came from. In American revolutionary war, some British mercenaries were called Hessians....

In Russian, at least, the country remains “Germany” but the people from it are the “mute-sies”, unlike pretty much every other pairing of country name / demonym.

In Italy Germany is Germania, but Germans are tedeschi and German (the language) is also tedesco. (BTW, we lowercase people and languages and weekdays and months, but this is changing - English leads.)

The reason seems to be the Latin word theodiscus from Old German theod / people.

Interesting tangent, but I believe this is also a slavic surname and is anglicised as Nimitz. And before you know it you have an aircraft carrier called USS Mute.

Fairly common in UK English, particularly in London which has long-term Jewish community.

It's slangy and self-consciously borrowed, like 'schlep' or 'schmuck' in New York English.

I was born and raised in the UK and have never heard of it. No Jewish friends or family though.

Definitely a thing in the UK : http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/onlyfools/lingo/

Very much a London-centric word, originally. And it seems like people of a certain age heard it all over the country on telly.

Ahhhhh, I had to look at the byline carefully. This article is syndicated from the The Telegraph.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/global-health/science-and-diseas...

Which explains the British idiom in a Anglo paper in a bilingual city in Canada. (Bonjour-Hi!)

I've never heard of it either. Grew up in the midwest, lived on the west coast.

I guess you could say we've been keeping schtum about it.

I don't think the other reply answered the question. Google trends show 10x as many queries from the UK than US for "schtum". So I would guess your intuition is correct.

It's a perfectly cromulent word.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/what-does-crom...

Without any context, Apple’s Dictionary lookup serves up the definition of “cromulent” from both OED and New OED entries. It was apparently added in 2017 according to a Reddit thread, and in 2018 according to this list: https://public.oed.com/updates/new-words-list-june-2018/

Merriam-Webster added “embiggen” but declined to add “cromulent”: https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-43298229

Common in the wider Jewish community in the UK. Universally understood now by most british people. In widespread use. Was in Monty Python, back in the 70s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yiddish_words_used_in_English#...

I'm a non-native English speaker and has heard it used many times. But since I'm Swedish it's also instantly understandable for me and so easier to remember maybe.

I'm Swedish and have never seen nor heard "schtum" before.

Guess "keeping quiet" didn't come to the author's mind. /s

And it didn't sound the least bit familiar from any similar Swedish word...?

Of course it does, given that there is a cognate Swedish word. I still have never seen "schtum" in English before. Maybe I'm just a schmuck.

Ett kutterschmycke.

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