Schnook

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A gullible, easily fooled person who is often taken advantage of ; a clumsy, inept fellow regarded with mild contempt
2. An easy mark who is readily cheated or duped ; a silly, bumbling individual who lacks common sense
3. Someone naive enough to be routinely victimized by others ; a foolish, awkward person viewed as a figure of ridicule

Etymology: The Yiddish "shnuk" meant a person who is easily imposed upon or cheated, a sucker in the plainest sense. English borrowed the word and its sense together, so the American slang "schnook" has always described someone who is taken in, rather than someone who is merely foolish or unlucky. The spelling settled into its familiar form in English through the Yiddish-inflected speech of American urban life, where it turned up in popular writing and comedy as a stock label for a gullible, good-natured fellow. Its sound also made it a handy name for the bumbling types who populated those stories.

Synonyms: sucker, dupe, patsy, chump