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schlock - 3 dictionary results

schlock

  [shlok] Slang.
Use schlock in a Sentence
–adjective
1. Also, schlocky. cheap; trashy: a schlock store.
–noun
2. something of cheap or inferior quality; junk.
Also, shlock.

Origin:
1910–15; appar. < Yiddish shlak apoplectic stroke, evil, nuisance, wretch (cf. MHG slac(g) blow; see slay ); though development of E sense is unclear
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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schlock also shlock   (shlŏk)   
n.  Something, such as merchandise or literature, that is inferior or shoddy.
adj.  Of inferior quality; cheap or shoddy.

[Possibly from Yiddish shlak, apoplexy, stroke, wretch, evil, nuisance, from Middle High German slag, slak, stroke, from slahen, to strike, from Old High German slahan.]
schlock'y, shlock'y adj.
Our Living Language  : A good number of English words borrowed from Yiddish (a variety of German with an admixture of Hebrew and Slavic elements) are recognizably of foreign extraction because they begin with sound combinations (shl-, shm-, shn-) not found at the beginnings of native English words. Schlock is such a word; it is descended from a Middle High German word for a hit or blow, and thus came to refer to damaged merchandise, and then to merchandise of poor quality. Other words beginning with this and similar sound combinations are Yiddish also: schlep, schlemiel, schmooze, schmuck, and schnoz. These words may not be equally common in all regions of the United States; they are most frequently heard in areas with sizable Jewish populations that either speak Yiddish or are descended from Yiddish speakers, such as New York City. Of course, not all Yiddish words borrowed into English begin with the sound (sh); one need only think of bagel, lox, blintz, nosh, meshugga, and kibbitz to get a feeling for the variety of words that Yiddish-speaking Jews brought with them to America.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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schlock 
"trash," 1915, from Amer. Yiddish shlak, from Ger. Schlacke "dregs, scum, dross" (see slag). Alternate etymology is from Yiddish shlogn "to strike" (cf. Ger. schlagen; see slay). Derived form schlockmeister "purveyor of cheap merchandise" is from 1965. Schlocky is attested from 1968.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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