Shoshabong

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Helene from Madison, Wisconsin.

Hello, Helene. Welcome.

Welcome to the program. How are things in Madison?

Well, I have this word that I grew up with. My mother used it.

I’ve only heard it mentioned one other time, which I’ll tell you about in a minute.

So I’m very puzzled by this and would love to get an origin for it.

The word is skoshabang, and what it means is tattered or ragtag or beat up.

That thing is all skoshabang, meaning it’s kind of a mess.

I grew up in upstate New York, and my mother was of Russian origin, but it’s not a Russian term.

It was nothing that anybody else in the area used.

And I never thought to ask her where she got it from, but I thought at first maybe it was Yiddish, but I’ve not ever found it in a Yiddish dictionary, and none of my Jewish friends have heard of it.

But the only other place that I ever heard it mentioned was this wonderful movie called Fatso with Dom DeLuise and Anne Bancroft.

And Anne Bancroft, who is Italian-American, wrote and directed the movie.

And it sat in an ethnic Italian restaurant or neighborhood in New York.

And at some point, her character refers to their beat-up old car as the Scotchabang, or for short, the Scotch.

You know, take the keys to the Scotch.

Oh, wow.

So you sat up straight when you heard that.

Oh, you bet.

But none of my Italian-American friends have ever heard of this.

This all came to a head several years ago when my husband and I adopted a puppy from the local Humane Society.

And we named him Scachabon because that’s what he was.

You know, he had no idea what went into the making of him.

His fur stuck out in every direction.

He was perfect, Scachabon.

But then we spent the rest of his life having to explain this name.

Oh, right.

I’ve looked it up also in the Dictionary of American Regional English.

I waited for decades for the F volume to come out,

And it’s not in there under any kind of spelling I can use.

Oh, man.

Gosh, wow.

So there it is.

So we don’t know if it’s all one word or three words?

I just know in the movie Fatso, it’s either the Skoshabang or, for short, the Skosh.

But I think that’s just for short.

Skoshabang.

I wonder, I mean, the distance between Russian and an Italian-American dialect is so large

That I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that it sounded the same.

Yeah.

Well, I’m drawing a blank here, and I don’t find anything on it.

And I think what we have to do is turn on the sirens, Martha.

Get the red lights going.

Somebody has heard this before outside of that movie and outside of the name of your dog.

Yeah.

You’re going to have to stay tuned.

Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, 1-877-W-A-Y-W-O-R-D,

Or send your answer for Helene to words@waywordradio.org.

This is an etymological emergency, so hurry.

Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

Okay, you’ll have to stay tuned, all right?

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

Bye.