Tuesday, April 13

Word of the Day- SCOOCH!

Growing up, if there was one word in Italian (or butchered Italian) that I heard over and over, it was the word "scooch." It means "pest," or "pain in the neck" and I believe it comes from the Italian verb "scocciatore," which means to bother.

As you can see, the poor word has been bastardized like so many other Italian words, by Italian-Americans. But when you're not a first or even second generation Italian, and you pick up words from your grandparents or even their parents, it's kind of like whisper down the lane. You know how what the original version gets all twisted up by the time it reaches the last person? It's kind of like that.

It can be used in verb or noun form.

"Claudia, don't scooch me while I'm cooking!"
"Hey, don't be a scooch- I'm trying to concentrate and you keep talking."

Enjoy your butchered word of the day.

7 comments:

  1. Funny, I was just googling that word to try to find the spelling. I heard it growing up too. I thought it was an everyday English word. Then one day as an adult, I called a coworker a scooch, and he had no idea what it meant. At first I thought he was kidding.

    Great word...

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  2. a co-worker just asked me if in my growing up had hear of this word... and i hadn't, but now am going to adopt in reference to the said co-worker! thanks!!

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  3. I heard schooch all the time when I was growing up, and now I'm passing it down to my kids. Another variation I heard, but do not know how to spell, is SCOOCH-AH-DEAL. I think it meant "little schooch"

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  4. I also grew up being told by my Mom, "Don't be a scooch", but since she grew up in Germany I always assumed it was a German term. Now I know where the term came from. After she immigrated to the U.S. in her early 20s (~60 years ago) my Mom was befriended by an Italian girl her age, rented a room from her mother, and for all intents and purposes, was adopted into their family. Apparently, the word "scooch" has been handed down to me just like "Grandma" LaFratto's lasagna recipe!

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  5. Joefitz,yes!!! Every word or name had "deal" or "nuch" as s suffix, lol.

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  6. I think Joe Fitz is right though - "sch" has a "k" sound in Italian (like school or schedule) so it is probably schooch!

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  7. Annchusa: My dog was named Scooch, he was high maintenance Pembroke wW
    elsh Corgi who lives up to his name every day!

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Thanks for your comment!- Claudia