Derived Meanings
The expression "falling into the schmaltz pot" refers to the concept of having something good happen to you, often by sheer luck (e.g., being born into a good family). Someone who happens to have good luck is given the reputation of being a schmalz.
In American English, via Yiddish, schmaltz (adj. schmaltzy) has also an informal meaning of "excessively sentimental or florid music or art" or "maudlin sentimentality", similar to one of the uses of the words "corn" or "corny". Its earliest usage in this sense dates to the mid-1930s. In German, schmalzig is also used in the same sense.
Schmaltz and Schmalz are common last names amongst Ashkenazi Jewish people of German and Austrian descent. Schmaltz was used as a metonymic occupational name for a chandler.
Read more about this topic: Schmaltz
Famous quotes containing the words derived and/or meanings:
“Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. From that divine tear and from that human smile is derived the grace of present civilization.”
—Victor Hugo (1802–1885)
“An amoeba is a formless thing which takes many shapes. It moves by thrusting out an arm, and flowing into the arm. It multiplies by pulling itself in two, without permanently diminishing the original. So with words. A meaning may develop on the periphery of the body of meanings associated with a word, and shortly this tentacle-meaning has grown to such proportions that it dwarfs all other meanings.”
—Charlton Laird (b. 1901)