Schmuck is most often used in American English as a pejorative or insult, meaning an obnoxious or contemptible person; one who is stupid, foolish, or detestable. Variants of spelling and alterations include shmuck, schmo and shmo. Schmuck entered English as a borrowed pejorative from the common Yiddish insult, where it is an obscene term for penis. Its etymology is uncertain. The Online Etymology Dictionary derives it from the Polish word smok for dragon, as a euphemism for "penis".