In a message dated 2/7/2005 1:59:51 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, junger@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes: related question: you know how you say "building? schmilding!" or : "glasses? schmasses!" What do you do if the word you are schm-ing already : starts with a schm? eg. "schmaltz --- what??" Herring? ---- I notice the OED has an entry for that, 'schm-', below, but no clue regarding Stone's question. I would suggest: geminate the m (as per the 1952 quote): Cheers, JL --- From the OED 'schm-'. An element, derived from the numerous Yiddish words that begin with this sequence of sounds, fused with or replacing the initial letter(s) of a word, so as to form a nonsense-word which is added to the original word in order to convey disparagement, dismissal, or derision. 1929 I. GOLLER Five Bks. of Mr. Moses V. ii. 215 â??I know he made Davy go to the Palace to-day with the idea of hastening on the crisis in his illness.â??.. â??Crisis-shmisis!â?? mocked Barnett disparagingly. 1935 A. KOBER Thunder over Bronx 28 Now alluva sudden is fency-shmency with forks. Ibid. 48 So who you rushing to see, Miss Hurry Shmurry? 1952 Jrnl. Eng. & Gmc. Philol. LI. 226 The morphological pattern of the jocular repetition of a word or word-ending prefixed by the cluster m- seems to have become quite generalized... I have heard..moon-schmoon, etc. 1953 I. ASIMOV Second Foundation xviii. 183 â??Time; schmime,â?? said Pappa irritably. 1963 T. PYNCHON V. xii. 354 â??It's murdering your own child, is what it is.â?? â??Child, schmild. A complex protein molecule, is all.â?? 1966 N.Y. Herald Tribune 20 Mar. (Sunday Mag.) 33/3 Trotsky-shmotsky, Lesbian- or Trotsky-shmotany way you slice The Group on screen it's the same old baloney about The Girls. 1967 New Yorker 28 Oct. 105/2 Two early Christians chanced to meet in Heaven... â??Saul of Tarsus, yet!â?? cried one. â??What are you doing here?â?? â??Tarsus-Schmarsus,â?? replied the other, â?? I'm Paul already.â?? 1969 Listener 24 Apr. 569/1, I was surprised to find René Cutforth retelling the old story of the psychiatrist and the fond mother without specifying that she's a Jewish mother. (â??I have to tell you, madam, that your son is suffering from an Oedipus complex.â?? â??Oedipus, Schmoedipus! What does it matter so long as he loves his mother?â?? ) 1971 D. HEFFRON Nice Fire & Some Moonpennies xv. 140 Gods, schmods! You can have them. 1978 F. ROSS Sleeping Dogs 110 â??Listen, â??Liâ?? â??Listen schmisten! I tell you I won't be here.â?? ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html