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Comment by motti | Hacker News Reader

It does only mean a "an arduous journey" or, when used literally, "to pull/drag" but it isn't used to to mean a arduous task in general.

I guess, In an effort to find a Google-able/SEO-friendly unique phrase, pg has overgeneralised the term.

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If you try a Google search for "such a schlep" you'll find plenty of cases in which the meaning has expanded to an arduous task in general.

"If you are one of those people who has always wanted DSTV, but never actually got down to installing it because it seems like such a schlep..."

"The first time I minced my own meat but it was such a schlep..."

"I'm getting all my books from Diesel e books and i just find it such a schlep to remove the drm's."

I stand corrected.

I'd also only heard it used specific to a journey, but just found this definition (the second group, from Collins http://www.thefreedictionary.com/schlep) includes:

  2. an arduous journey or procedure

I feel there's a connotation of unnecessariness to the difficulty ("clumsiness" in the literal meaning is similar; that it shouldn't be there). e.g. climbing Mt. Everest is "an arduous journey" - but I don't think it's a "schlep". Unnecessary difficulty is just the thing for a startup to target. Suffer that tedium so your customers don't have to.

Yes, schlep isn't used for tasks. It's used only for journeys. The connotation is that a particular trip is going to be long, painful, tedious, annoying, difficult, etc. It is not used for tasks that don't involve physically moving yourself or transporting something.

It "isn't used to to mean a arduous task in general" says who? The OED defines it as a "troublesome business, a piece of hard work" with examples of that particular usage going back to 1964 in the Economist, who I presume wouldn't have used it unless their audience would understand. Pg has provided contemporary examples from the web at large using it in this fashion as well. Also the original German doesn't mean the actual journey but the act of dragging or being burdened so I don't see how this usage is likely to be at odds anyway.

As a native Yiddish speaker, my experience is that schlep is only used to describe a journey-related pain in Yiddish - I think TFA statement that this is a Yiddish word used in this context is what's confusing (has the article been edited to clarify this since?). It appears that its use has been expanded by non-Yiddish speakers to refer to "arduous tasks" - although no-one besides OED seems to think this.

As it happens, in Yiddish, there is a one other use which is more related which is to describe someone as "a schlepper" (or that they "schlepped") which means they take a long time do something.

No-one besides the OED.. There is no central authority for English, but if there were one it would be the OED. Besides, there are copious examples of people using it in that way in English for half a century: the OED catalogues these so it's not really up for debate in English. And that's the point, it's English not Yiddish we are talking about. You would say "it's Yiddish, not German" if a German started trying to correct you on things because he's a "native speaker".

Edit: as far as I can tell the article always said "originally a Yiddish word" which serves to hold the case I am making.

the original German doesn't mean the actual journey but the act of dragging or being burdened

Yes, Mahler writes all over his scores the instruction nicht schleppen -- don't drag

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