Where the hell did this word come from? If I’m correct in my deciphering of the word’s meaning based on how it was used in a thread here recently and in this Google search, it means “to keep one’s mouth shut”. Am I correct? How is it pronounced? What is the word’s origin?
I believe it is yiddish or derived from yiddish.
I thought it was schtum, as in to keep schtum. It’s not a phrase that gets used very often here.
It’s used in the Monty Python sketch in which Hitler is living in England. Episode 12 of the first season.
Von Ribbentrop says something like: “Cool it Führer cat! Schtum! Schtum!” The word obviously means “keep quiet” “stop talking” in German.
Some Yiddish speakers may have adapted it from German, of course, but it’s not really a Yiddish word.
I don’t know if this is relevant, but S’Tom is Hebrew for “shut.” One of the “Our Father, Our King” prayers asks G-d to “S’Tom Piyos”, or “shut the mouths of” those who cause people to hate and persecute us Jews.
And this prayer long pre-dates the blend of German and Hebrew that became Yiddish.