# Jeopardy; we did not understand a correction in scoring tuesday 2/27 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 18, 2015, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014 "2015-02-18T16:24:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/21 "2015-02-19T09:13:28Z")
English has hella words for penis too penis dick rod johnson wiener willy cock schlong (is that yiddish?) I imagine there’s a lot of words for it in many languages ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/22 "2015-02-19T09:45:23Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > Shlimiel and shlimazel go together naturally, especially if you watched _ **L&S** _ in the '70s. > > IIRC, a shlimiel is the guy who spills his beer; a shlimazel is the guy he spills it on. I heard it this way on _All In the Family_: A schlemiel goes through life spilling hot soup. A schlimazel is the guy who always gets hot soup spilled on him. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/23 "2015-02-19T10:48:12Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > My parents are native Yiddish speakers (their first language) and never used schmuck more than a mild insult, but as an English word. It means penis, so it’s calling someone a dick. While in the Yiddish it’s more vulgar, in English it’s pretty mild. When I was a kid, we got punished for saying shmuck. It was worse than the really bad English words, fuck and shit, so I still find it a little shocking to hear on network TV. Shmucks are unpleasant people, though. That’s for sure. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/24 "2015-02-19T12:32:05Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > When I was a kid, we got punished for saying shmuck. It was worse than the really bad English words, fuck and shit, so I still find it a little shocking to hear on network TV. Shmucks are unpleasant people, though. That’s for sure. My parents were in no way crude, and we never swore around the house anyway, but they never found it a big deal. Maybe they would’ve if one of us had said it to them. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/25 "2015-02-19T13:28:10Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Ahhhh, you’ve probably heard it [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJzF8_df1R8#t=7s). I have never seen an episode of Laverne and Shirley, consequently, I had never heard the word schlemiel before either. That’s probably why I guessed “schmuck”, because it’s the only yiddish insult I know. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/26 "2015-02-19T16:23:46Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > English has hella words for penis too > > penis dick rod johnson wiener willy cock schlong (is that yiddish?) > > I imagine there’s a lot of words for it in many languages Tallywhacker. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/27 "2015-02-19T16:33:28Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > There are lots of Yiddish words for a pitiful or unpleasant person, though. What a weird clue. There are a lot in English as well. Yiddish was a living, every day language. Not surprising there are so many ways to express annoyance with your fellow human beings. ---
**Author:** ![Weedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/weedy/32/301_2.png) [@Weedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weedy)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/28 "2015-02-20T00:59:58Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > To each his own, but calling someone a jackass (or even shortened to just an ‘ass’) has been understood to mean foolish, and be completely separate from the body part for quite a while now. I remember hearing/reading it in polite circles as a kid back in the 70s. Calling someone an ‘asshole’ however is definitely not allowed on network TV. Using it repeatedly in a film can be enough to earn you an R from the MPAA. ‘Ass’ can mean donkey. A jackass is a male donkey. ‘Ass’ as donkey is a common insult used by old-fashioned, G-rated British authors like P.G. Wodehouse and Enid Blyton. It’s a bit jarring to read sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014/29 "2015-02-20T05:51:44Z")
A few years ago while visiting relatives in the UK, I saw a [kids’ tv show on the BBC](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007ckwx) that made much use of puns about a fictional disease from the (real) Isle of Scilly known as “Scilly A.S.S.” I thought that was pretty bawdy for a children’s show, but my aunt pointed out that even though there is wide recognition that it’s a vulgarity in American English, “ass,” especially in the phrase “silly ass,” is an innocuous term for donkey, quite distinct from “arse.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jeopardy-we-did-not-understand-a-correction-in-scoring-tuesday-2-27/713014.md?page=1)