Schlemiels

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who is prone to misfortune and often seen as inept or clumsy in their actions
2. someone who frequently encounters setbacks due to their own blunders or bad luck
3. an individual characterized by a lack of success or resourcefulness in navigating life's challenges

Etymology: "Schlemiels" is the plural of "schlemiel," so the story belongs to the singular. The noun came into English from Yiddish, where the form was "shlimil," and it carries the sense of a clumsy, unlucky person who keeps bungling things, often to the amusement or exasperation of those around him. The word's reputation rests on its use in Yiddish and Jewish humour, where the schlemiel became a stock figure: the hapless fellow whose blunders leave him worse off while his more cunning rival prospers. Yiddish literature and the American comic tradition later made the type familiar well beyond Yiddish-speaking communities, and that is largely how the word reached English speakers.