schmoopiness

n. behavior that is excessively cutesy, precious, or adoring. Subjects: English

Editorial Note: This word—and the noun schmoopy ‘a term of affection for one who is adored; a person who exhibits schmoopiness’ and the adjective schmoopy ‘(excessively) cutesy or adoring’—was popularized by, if not coined for, episode 116 of the television program Seinfeld, first broadcast Nov. 25, 1995. The words are also frequently spelled with shmoop–. Despite the show’s setting in New York City and the nebbishness of the character George Constanza, there’s no evidence that this word is derived from a real Yiddish word.

Comments? | Cites | Permalink | Tell a Friend

Citations: 1997 [Ms. Quickly-Krycek] Usenet: alt.tv.x-files (Dec. 1) “Re: An assessment of PMP”: I never want to see kissing or any such schmoopiness going on between Mulder and Scully. 1999 Rod Dreher New YorkPost (Sept. 17) “Little Love For ‘Game’: Costner’s Latest Is Way Off Base” p. 43: ‘For Love of the Game” is another two-hours-plus Kevin Costner strikeout, a gassy baseball elegy suffocating in Lite-Rock schmoopiness and Costnerian self-regard. 2001 Tom Hill TV Land To Go (Dec. 4) p. 209: This episode is just as rich and thick as the Soup Nazi’s mulligatawny, and we didn’t even try to include the entire subplot in which George deals with Sheila and her “schmoopiness.” 2005 Johns Hopkins News-Letter (Baltimore, Md.) (Apr. 15) “Hot at Hopkins”: Besty likes a man who doesn’t mind cuddling—or schmoopiness, as she calls it. And after all that schmooping, you’d better not be disrespectful, because disrespect is her pet peeve.

Posted 15 Apr 05 | Permalink | Tell a Friend