schlemiel, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

schlemiel n.

also schlem, schlemeel, schlemiehl, schlemihl, schlemmil, shlemiel, schliemel

[Yid. schlemiel, a bungler, a simpleton; ? the proper name Shelumiel, cited in Num. 25:8, as meeting an unfortunate end. He is generally equated with Zimri, whose fornication with a pagan, as recounted in the Talmud, led to his being killed in flagrante delicto by Phinehas. The details of the execution were suppressed by pious Jewish historians, but when schlemiel entered Yid. it meant anyone in ‘an unfortunate (if unspecified) predicament’ and thence, by phonetic confusion with Western Yid. schlimm Masel, a luckless fellow (cf. schlemazel n.), it took on the 20C+ popular meaning]

a fool, a clumsy person, a misfit, a gullible person etc.

1870		Hours at Home July 290: (American Periodical Series) Some of the stories have the zest of novelty and quaintness. That of ‘Anschel, the Schlemiel,’ for instance, is exceedingly clever.
1881		Jewish Chronicle (London) 12 Aug. 10/2: This dialect generally known by the name of Judisch-Deutsch [...] furnishes a clue to several entirely non-German expressions and phrases that are currently used in South Germany, such as uzen (to banter), meschugge (crazy), schote (fool), schlimmassel (ill-luck), schlemihl (an awkward person), &c.
1887		Sporting Times 5 Nov. 6/1: Mossy is a real schlemiel, though he tries to schlenter he’s so mighty froom.
1890		‘Morris the Mohel’ ‘Houndsditch Day By Day’ in Sporting Times 11 Jan. 3: What a shlemiel! I don’t pelieve there’s a greater ruach betveen Dook’s Place and Spitalfield’s Church.
1898		Binstead & Wells Pink ’Un and Pelican 247: He was what the Yids call a schlemiel; no matter what he turned his hand to, nothing ever came of it.
1903		D. Blackburn Burgher Quixote 87: You schlem! you traitor!
1908		Manchester Courier 6 Mar. 12/2: Day after day he sat (schlemiel-like) on a bench in the public gardens wating [...] but the offer never came.
1919		F. Hurst Humoresque 8: ‘Schlemmil!’ he cried. ‘Momser! Ganef! Nebich!’[...] he branded his offspring with attributes of apostate and ne’er-do-well, of idiot and thief.
c.1926		L. da Costa Kosher Kitty’s Kids II iii: Oih, what a schlemihl you are.
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 69: I’ll get you more and better fights than that schlemihl.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 123: Can’t you find any smart people in this world, you gotta go around picking out such schlemiels like that --?
1941		B. Schulberg What Makes Sammy Run? (1992) 32: That schlemiel had nothing on the ball but a prayer.
1947		S.J. Perelman ‘The Customer Is Always Right’ in Keep It Crisp 109: Next time you visit this fleabag, you will be greeted by a lobbyful of schlemiehls and nincompoops that will curl your hair.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 813: For two cents I’d offer the schlemiel a drink; then he’d have to notice it.
1953		A. Kahn Brownstone 203: She refused to sit like a schlemeel and bemoan the fact that the door was jammed.
1961		S. Price Just for Record 51: The schliemels who read books won’t twig.
1963		A. Baron Lowlife (2001) 8: A schlemiel I’ve got for a brother-in-law.
1968		L. Rosten Joys of Yiddish 265: A nebech is sometimes defined as the kind of person who always picks up—what a shlemiel knocks over.
1971		L. Bangs in Psychotic Reactions (1988) 80: You know he’s just a schlemiel behind all that savoir faire.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 71: The Yiddish ‘schlemiel’ a simpleton.
1986		N.Y. Times 6 Feb. n.p.: A shlemiel is the fellow who climbs to the top of a ladder with a bucket of paint and then drops it [R].
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 8: The shvarze’s a shlemiel.
2005		J. Stahl I, Fatty 97: The caper called for Charlie to play [...] a real ‘schlemiel’.