My Little Snicklefritz

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, Martha, it’s Allie Meeks calling from Decatur, Alabama.

Hey, Allie, welcome.

Hi, Allie.

Thanks.

Welcome to the show.

Hey.

And, yeah, so I had a question for you guys, though, about a word that my mom used to use when we were kids.

All right, fire away.

Yeah, so she used to call us snickle fritz when we were kids, and it was something that she called us when we were being selfish or just kind of a little turd, you know, like kids can be.

And she usually used it at one of us not like you’re being a snickle fritz it was it was more like a name so for example okay snickle fritz the world does not revolve around you or if you choose that snickle fritz that’s a really bad choice or something like that and and my mom is is originally from Wisconsin and kind of all over but her dad was a beck so he was from Germany.

And I thought maybe it sounds kind of German. So I thought maybe it might be a little German name that we know nothing about.

Yeah. Yeah. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. There’s the winner. Winner, winner, chicken dinner.

Yeah. The Wisconsin heritage and the German heritage right there puts you firmly in the Schnickelfritz territory.

Congratulations.

Yeah. You win. Here’s your prize. An answer.

Schnickle Fritz or Schnickle Fritz is of several different ways it’s been spelled in the United States.

Two common ways, S-N-I-C-K-E-L-F-R-I-T-Z and S-C-H-N-I-C-K-E-L-F-R-I-T-Z.

So the male name Fritz at the end with the Z and then some form of Snickle or Schnickle before that.

This is definitely of German origin.

The schnickle part is where there’s a bit of a mystery here.

The etymology that’s been proposed by the Dictionary of American Regional English is that it means a little boy’s wiener.

Yeah, schniggle or schnickle.

And so it’s kind of taunting.

It’s kind of like calling somebody you little ding dong, something like that.

Yeah.

But it has been used many, many times over the years to call somebody a scamp.

It’s not horribly offensive at all.

It’s just, it’s kind of like, I can’t say that, but you little, you know.

Snickle fritz.

Yeah, you little schnickle fritz.

It can be really affectionate.

In some families, it is only affectionate.

It’s just a very adoring term.

And there’s no hint at all about the person you’re calling a schnickle fritz being a scamp or a rascal at all.

Now, as for its history, obviously this country in the United States has a huge German heritage.

And if it weren’t for the two world wars, we’d probably still have a lot of people speaking German or still have a strong memory of it being spoken in their house.

So Snigelfritz shows up first as a common humorous last name used in little jokey pieces in theater or the newspaper, kind of these little stories that you tell.

Well, here, for example, is something from 1872.

The gentleman who turns the machine that prints this newspaper rejoices in the name of Isaac Jordan Stringward Snigelfritz Smell Fungus.

Which is clearly a made-up name.

So somebody who works in this newspaper is making fun of somebody else who works for this newspaper.

I wonder if they just, like, slipped that in there to make fun of their co-worker.

There’s another bit in a newspaper from 1860.

It’s saying, why don’t people change such outlandish names as Hornblower, Snigelfritz, Punkenseed, Doonder, Struckhausen, and the like?

So again and again and again, and its earliest uses, Schnickle Fritz is either a funny name or it’s meant to represent people of German heritage.

And it’s not really until much later that it starts to show up as just kind of a general name for a kid.

You know, a lot of times it’s used to mean like Joe Sixpack or what the Spanish would call Fulano, just like a generic name for like that guy, that Schnickle Fritz.

Right. Yeah. And the name always makes me hungry for snicker bars.

I don’t know what it is about it.

Or snickerdoodles.

Snickerdoodles.

That’s what I always think of, yeah.

Anyway, that’s what we know about that.

It’s a fantastic word, but aren’t you glad that nobody calls you Doondra Strickhausen?

Right, exactly, because I don’t think I could say it.

Yeah, that’s great.

That’s really interesting.

My mom will be so thrilled to know the etymology of how that came about, because I’m not even sure she knew anything about it.

She told me her mom used to use it calling them in as kids into the yard, and her dad.

We’re shouting, Schnecklefretzes in here now.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, Allie, thanks so much for sharing this.

Yes.

Thank you so much.

And thanks so much for your show.

It’s such a blessing.

It’s just a really fun thing to listen to.

It’s a joy to everyone who hears.

Well, great.

Call us again sometime.

Take care, Allie.

We will.

Thanks, guys.

All right.

Be well.

Bye-bye.