# Is it "schwanzstucker" or "schwanzschtupper"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 13, 2020, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958 "2020-12-13T16:32:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2020, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/21 "2020-12-13T23:47:37Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > the Yiddish form of _schwanz_ is [_shvantz_ .](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/shvantz) It can’t be, though. In German it is spelled Schwanz, with a capital S. “Shvants” looks like an attempt by an English speaker to transliterate that word. But any Yiddish speaker would write it exclusively as " שװאַנץ", unless they were writing High German, which case we have covered. I do not envision a scenario where they would spell it like an English speaker illiterate in both German and Yiddish, though while I know German and Hebrew I don’t know from Yiddish so I can’t be absolutely 100% sure. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/22 "2020-12-14T01:30:50Z")
And here is where I notice that both Hebrew and Cyrillic have a letter for the “sch” sound, and that the two letters bear an obvious relation to each other. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/23 "2020-12-14T01:46:50Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > {…} It also mimics the form of a finger, a pencil, a telephone pole, a rocket, an asparagus stalk, a drumstick, a banana, and probably several thousand other objects. {…} But, usually, a cigar is just a cigar. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/24 "2020-12-14T02:44:34Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > “Shvants” looks like an attempt by an English speaker to transliterate that word. Which is perfectly OK for an English-language message board. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/25 "2020-12-14T02:47:01Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > “Shvants” looks like an attempt by an English speaker to transliterate that word. Which is an entirely reasonable course to take in a casual discussion on an English-language messageboard about dialogue in a comedy movie. Although I realize that said messageboard regards nitpicking as a religious requirement. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/26 "2020-12-14T02:49:31Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Schwanz means ‘tail’. Stück (pl. Stücke) means ‘piece’. So literally, Schwanzstücker means ‘tail-piece’. But since it’s a made-up word, probably flavoured with Yiddish, I suspect Brooks intended it to mean ‘tail sticker’. (I think a closer word for ‘stick’ might be stoß, ‘to push’.) BTW “Stecker” means “plug”, from stecken, to stick. “Stück” is a different word. > [@Colibri](#): > > > [@DPRK](#): > > > > “Shvants” looks like an attempt by an English speaker to transliterate that word. > > Which is perfectly OK for an English-language message board. You will get no argument from me. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/27 "2020-12-14T02:57:00Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > “Stück” is a different word. Which is what I said: ‘Stück (pl. Stücke) means “piece”.’ 😉 Didn’t know Stecker. ---
**Author:** ![caligulathegod](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/caligulathegod/32/9685_2.png) [@caligulathegod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/caligulathegod)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/28 "2020-12-14T05:48:32Z")
Kind of surprised it hasn’t been noted that “penis” itself is Latin for “tail”. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/29 "2020-12-17T21:24:11Z")
Okay. Yiddish is mostly German formally written in Hebrew characters. There are sounds in Hebrew or Yiddish that are NOT in English or the Roman alphabet we English speakers use. So transliterating Hebrew and Yiddish into English, well, there are NO standard spellings. Then take into account those of my grandmother’s generation were immigrants from central Europe where Yiddish was their mother tongue and English was their second language (or third or forth … there was Hebrew and maybe Russian or Polish). The point I wanted to get to is Ws and Vs sorta got confuddled when they were speaking English or Yinglish. Where native English speakers would read “Schwantz” and say “schwantz”, German and Yiddish speakers would say “Schvantz”. And Schwantz, along with Schmuck, Putz, Schmekel, Schmekele, and Petzele are all references to a Penis. \* Shtup is Yiddish for the act of sexual intercourse. It seems I tossed in an extra C in the OP. So sue me. As for the movie? Teri Garr, as lovely as she is, as talented as an actor as she is, is a Shiksa and Brooks let her mispronunciation slide. - don’t get me started on the endings I think of as an “affectionate diminutive”. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/30 "2020-12-17T23:44:59Z")
Or, you could be totally wrong. For that matter, who knows who wrote that line? Could have been Gene for all we know. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/31 "2020-12-18T00:36:21Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Or, you could be totally wrong. “Totally wrong” about what? > [@](#): > > For that matter, who knows who wrote that line? Could have been Gene for all we know. You have to be kidding if you think anyone but Brooks made up the word. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/32 "2020-12-18T00:46:18Z")
Prove it! 😛 Mel **did not** write that line. Gene did. Check the [First Draft screenplay:](http://www.lexwilliford.com/Workshops/Screenwriting/Scripts/Adobe%20Acrobat%20Scripts/young_frankenstein.pdf) _ **INGA** _ _(pointing to another_ _paragraph)_ _And look at this, Doctor!_ _ **FREDDY** _ _(reading)_ _'Dilation of his sacral_ _parasympathetic impulses would_ _cause an increase in flow of_ _blood and the erection to_ _approximately nineteen inches_ _of his apparatus genitals.’_ _ **IGOR** _ _His what??_ _ **INGA** _ _His schwanzstucker._ _ **IGOR** _ _Whew! A nineteen-inch drill._ ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/33 "2020-12-18T01:01:44Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > > [@terentii](#): > > > > I believe the penis is a “tail” in that it’s long and cylindrical. In other words, it mimics the form of a true tail. > > I don’t understand your point. Yes, a penis “mimics the form” of a tail. It also mimics the form of a finger, a pencil, a telephone pole, a rocket, an asparagus stalk, a drumstick, a banana, and probably several thousand other objects. That’s irrelevant to whether any of these terms actually mean “penis” in any particular language. I assumed the point was to give a reason why the word for “tail” would also mean “penis.” It makes sense that the latter evolved because the penis is like a man’s front tail. It probably started out as a euphemism, similar to the English “cock.” ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2020, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958/34 "2020-12-18T02:51:36Z")
Wow, I’m glad they changed that first draft, because what made it in was much funnier. Though that might just be Garr’s delivery. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-schwanzstucker-or-schwanzschtupper/927958.md?page=1)