Shemozzle (pronounced sch-moz-il)
(1) In slang, a state of chaos or confusion (especially
if noisy); an uproar.
(2) In slang, a quarrel (especially if noisy).
(3) In slang, to run away; to flee; to scarper (rare).
Late 1800s (in English and some sources cite 1889 as the
first known instance of use): From the Yiddish שלימזל (shlimazl) (bad
luck; difficulty; misfortune), the construct being shlim (bad, ill), from the Middle High German slimp (awry, not right) + the Hebrew מַזָּל (mazzāl), from
the Late Hebrew mazāl (luck, fate, (one’s)
star) and cognate with the US English schlimazel
(an unlucky person). There are many
variations of the German joke (such things really exist, even in Prussia) to
explain the related nouns shlemiel
& shimazl but all are in the
flavor of: “A shlemiel is the fellow
who climbs to the top of a ladder with a bucket of paint and then drops it and
a shimazl is the fellow on whose head
the bucket falls.” The colloquial German
noun Schlamassel (plural Schlamassel) (trouble, difficult
situation, misfortune) was from the same Yiddish source. The gender of Schlamassel is usually masculine in Germany except in the southern
state of Bavaria where, like the neighboring Austria it can also be neuter,
this prevalent in the latter. Because from
the ninth century Yiddish evolved from its West-Germanic origins as a
vernacular tongue which a number of forks & parallel streams in Europe,
the Middle East and North America before being (sort of) standardized in the
mid-twentieth century in “Western” and “Eastern” variants, many words spread by
oral use and the a variety of spellings was not unusual and other spellings of
shemozzle included: chemozzle,
chermozzle, chimozzle, schemozzle, schimozzle, schlemozzle, schmozzle,
shamozzle, shimozzel, shimozzle, shlemozel & shlemozzle. The modern
alternative spelling is schmozzle. Schmozzle
is a noun & verb and shemozzled & shemozzling are verbs; the noun
plural is schmozzles (which is sometimes used also as a singular). In humorous use, shemozzle is used also as a
collective noun.
Because there’s rarely been reluctance by English-speakers to adopt words from other languages if they’re useful, better than what’s in use or just an attractive alternative, there no compelling reason to use shemozzle because there are so many other words and phrases to describe states of noisy chaos or confusion. Obvious candidates include frenzy, mess, fiasco, snafu, chaos, clusterfuck (often sanitized as the clipped “cluster”), commotion, hubbub, kerfuffle, débacle, disarray, confusion, turmoil, ado, affray, altercation, argument, battle, bickering, brawl, brouhaha, bust-up, bustle, clash, combat, commotion, competition, conflict, contention, controversy, debate, discord, dispute, muddle, dissension, disturbance, dustup, fracas, quarrel, row, ruction, scandal, strife, struggle, tiff, tumult, uproar, wrangle, disorganized, disorder, mayhem, pandemonium, uproar, havoc & bedlam. That the list is long suggests shemozzles are a significant and not infrequent feature of human interaction and the choice of which to use is one of nuance, the connotation one wishes, some of the words emphasizing the chaos, some the conflict. Shemozzle is an attractive choice because (1) most know what it means, (2) it’s not commonly heard so has some novelty value and (3) it's a "fun" word to say.
A media shemozzle snapping Lindsay Lohan walking into LA Superior Court, Los Angeles, February 2011.
A shemozzle can be used to illustrate chaos theory, a
conceptual model of the phenomenon of an event’s ultimate trigger being
something distant and apparently unconnected with its consequences. Physicists illustrate the idea by speculating
that waving one’s hands in the air might, some billions of years hence, alter
the Earth’s speed of rotation and the most commonly quoted thought experiment
is the metaphor for the behavior: “Can a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil cause a
tornado in Texas?” It’s an intriguing
topic for those building big-machine models which can both explore and reveal
patterns in what was once thought randomness.
The shemozzle of reporters and photographers clustered
when Lindsay Lohan in February 2011 walked to one of the well-publicized (and
not infrequent) court appearances of her “troubled
Hollywood starlet” phase wasn’t unexpected and nor would she have found it
an unfamiliar environment, the yellow & black plastic “Police Line: DO NOT CROSS” tape strung between the bollards vaguely
reminiscent of the velvet rope & stanchions which define the limits for
photographers at red-carpet events. What
was unpredicted was the almost immediate effect in commerce, the white Kimberly
Ovitz (b 1983) Glavis Albino bandage
dress from the houses pre-fall collection reported as “sold out worldwide” within hours of the images appearing on-line, a
reasonable achievement for a piece listed at US$575 made in a run of a few
hundred.
The matter before the court raised no novel legal points
and thus attracted little analysis but the re-purposing of the walk to the arraignment
as an impromptu catwalk strut triggered a shemozzle of its own as women around
the world clamoured to buy their own Glavis
Albino and media companies sought comment from Kimberly Ovitz, anxious to
learn if the appearance was some sort of “sponsored
promotion”. A representative from
the company was soon quoted as saying “Kimberly had no role in Lindsay Lohan wearing the dress”
which Ms Lohan had purchased. Apparently
disappointed, the journalists resorted to dutifully noting her “signature Chanel
5182 sunglasses.”
Ms Lohan that evening tweeted: “What I wear to court shouldn’t be front page
news. It’s just absurd” although her choice of wardrobe for
subsequent court appearances hinted she may have concluded absurdity has its
place and at Kimberley Ovitz’s corporate headquarters the reaction was equally
pragmatic, the company offering retailers a “re-cut” (the industry term for a
second production run, a la a “second printing” in the publishing world) of the
Glavis Albino in response to the phones
“ringing off
the hook”. “It’s been a
frenzy!” CBS News quoted an Ovitz sales associate as saying. So that’s a case study in how the choice
should be made: A rabble of photographers milling behind the bollards while
shouting questions is “a shemozzle” while desperate fashionistas and boutiques
besieging a designer for a frock is “a frenzy”.
Now we know.
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