schmo, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

schmo n.

also schmeen, schmoe, schmoo, schmooh, shmo

[schmo is not a Yid. word per se, but was invented as a deliberate euph. for the taboo schmuck n.]

(orig. US) a fool.

1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 72: The dumb schmooh!
1938		Reading (PA) Eagle 20 Mar. 7/3: A ‘dope’ person is referred to as a ‘schmo hawk’.
1943		‘Joe Palooka’ [comic strip] in Nevada State Journal (Reno) 26 Sept. 12: Jeepers-creepers...It’s lonesome...Knobby married...an’ Joey gonna be...an’ they’re both happy...an’ I’m a lonesome schmo...I’m gonna git married!
1951		S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 391: The red letters read: ‘For school president we schmoos vote for Joe Perry’.
1954		Mad mag. Apr. 3: [title] G.I. Schmoe.
1959		M. Richler Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1964) 22: Look, I’m not the kind of shmo who has to get his sex second-hand.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 60: For fear of being thought a schmo.
1964		E. Wilson Earl Wilson’s N.Y. 193: You foolish people! You schmoes!
1987		J. Ciardi Good Words 252: Schmo. A more or less pitiful dolt.
1992		D. Burke Street Talk 2 156: You actually like that schmo?
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Schmoe (noun) A nitwit; a stupid person.
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 5: schmeen – a more favorable version of schmuck or schmo: Quit being a schmeen and give me the remote.
2004		Mad mag. Feb. 4: Mike earns the handle ‘Schmuck,’ ‘Schmo,’ or ‘Dweeb’.
2009		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 24 Sept. 🌐 I’m just an average schmo. A schmo who likes a schmoke.
2013		J. Stahl Happy Mutant Baby Pills 87: At least I wasn’t just another schmoe in front of the TV.

schmoehopper (n.)

a young woman who only goes out with weak, spineless men.

1948

Nashua (IA) Reporter 10 Oct. 6/4: Did You Know That: [...] A Schmoehopper is a girl who dates nothing but Drips?