AboutCornelia Neumann Expertise I can answer questions regarding grammar and style, as well as many questions about German culture, history, and literature.
Experience I am native speaker with a German degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language and German. I lived and worked in the USA for seven years (taught high school and all college levels) and spent three years as a high school teacher of German and EFL at an international school in Mexico. In 2006 I returned to Germany, where I am currently working as a teacher in Hamburg.
There is an American word schmutter/shmutter which must come from Yiddish and means “rag”. (An example of usage: "Nice bit of schmutter!" This could be used of any garment someone is taken with, not just rags.) It may also mean “rubbish”, but I'm not sure about that.
My question: what is the corresponding German word, please? It sounds so familiar but I can't trace it anywhere.
All the best, and many thanks,
Simon
Answer Hi Simon,
all I can come up with here is "Schmutz", which means dirt, rubbish. How that would translate into clothing I have no idea.
Don't forget that many Yiddish words actually have their roots in Hebrew, so while something might look German it could be just as close to Hebrew as to German.
