[Sometimes words die out of fashion. But sometimes those words are good words, words with a certain appeal that can't be denied forever. Those words should be brought back into fashion, used frequently and used often. These are those words.]
Word:
Wisenheimer
Definition: noun
1. A self-assertive and arrogant person.
2. A smart-aleck, a know-it-all.
Origin:
Another Americanism created in that Frankenstein vein where we Yanks slice and dice words from other languages, sew them together, strap it to 50,000 volts, put a charge through it and start screaming "It's alive! It's ALIVE!"
The OED claims the word originated in 1904 in a Roy Larcom McCardell book called The Show Girl and Friends, jumping on the early 20th century American slang bandwagon of adding -heimer to every word to be cheeky. (True story.) Picture Snoop Dogg's fo' shizzle craze among suburban moms about ten years ago, but with a German flare. In this case McCardell took the English wise and added to the German extract -heminer from surnames.
By 1919, H.L. Mencken spoke of the -heimer craze and how it died out, but "wisenheimer remains in colloquial use as a facetious synonym for smart-aleck, and after awhile it may gradually acquire dignity."
Yes, indeed--the dignity everyone associates with vaudeville and Abbot & Costello acts. Mencken was spot-on.
Most obscure UrbanDictionary.com definition of wisenheimer:
1. Someone always making feeble wisecracks, who laughs at his/her own jokes and is generally deserving of severe and painful punishment.
Used in a sentence:
1. The wisenheimer quietly mocked the teacher's lisp while sitting in the back of the class.
2. That jamoke--he's a real wisenheimer with the way he's full of one-liners.
Word Awesomeness Scale (1 to 5):
Four.
Channels an inner Marx Brothers routine you always deny within yourself.
photo: AP
