Snickelfritz

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Jay from Kokomo, Indiana.

Hello, Jay from Kokomo.

How are you doing?

Well, I have a kind of a nickname my mom used to use when I was little. Sometimes she would call me Snickle Fritz. And it’s something I never thought much about over the years. She would call my children that, you know, her grandkids sometimes. And my first wife passed away about 10 years ago. I’ve since remarried, now I have an 11-year-old stepson, and I’ve started using that term for him. And recently we were in a German cafe where they have a lot of gifts and stuff, and on the wall there was a poster that had different German kind of caricatures, cartoon characters, and beside one of them was the name’s Mikkelfrid. And then I was driving not long ago to one of my older sons, plays college basketball, driving to one of his games, listening to your show. So I thought, well, I’ll call in and see if you guys can help me figure out where the term Snickle Fritz came from or what it might mean.

So your mother used this. Did she use it on you when you were a child or an adult or both?

Just as a child.

Okay. And sometimes, you know, if I’d go over to, like, take my kids when they were little over to my mom and dad’s, you know, she might say, well, why don’t you just sit down and eat, and I’ll take Snickle Fritz here out in the yard and play or, you know, referring to my kids.

Are you of German heritage? Was your mother a German speaker?

My mom was adopted, so we don’t know a lot about her heritage. But what I do know, I think, is mostly Welsh and Irish. Now, on my dad’s side, there’s a lot of German.

Well, this is a pet name. It does come from German. You’re spot on with that. And it’s used to describe a little boy, particularly one who’s up to no good. It’s a term of affection. It’s not meant to be offensive or an insult or anything. And I think it’s completely appropriate that you use it. Except is that when you break it down etymologically, it comes from a German dialect word for, pardon me, little boy’s penis, plus the common name Fritz.

Really?

Yes, schnickel. Schnickel is a German dialect word meaning little boy’s penis.

Okay. All right. And the thing is, you’re like, whoa, wait a second. What have I been saying all these? What was my mother calling me?

Well, it always struck me as a term of endearment.

Yeah. That’s the way I’ve always taken it. Sort of a little rascal or something, right? And the thing is, words become transformed when they join other words. So schnickle plus fritz doesn’t necessarily mean anything naughty. It becomes a term of affection. And frankly, if you look at pet names in all the languages of the world, this is like tame and mild compared to what happens in some other languages. And I won’t go into them because we can’t say them on the radio. But what’s really interesting to me is that you have it in your vocabulary. You learned it from your mother, who wasn’t a German heritage, which just shows that this word was adopted very well into English. And we find that it appears in Nebraska and California and Illinois and Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and here and there.

Well, I like it.

I do, too. And I like to tease my stepson, and that’s just something, you know, I use that term once in a while. I’m just calling Sniffle Fritz, and he’s not offended by it at all.

Excellent. So you’ll keep using it, Jay?

Oh, yes, yes.

Excellent. Just don’t tell him, no.

Yeah. He’ll hear it. He’ll hear it.

Yeah, someday.

Thank you for calling, Chad. It’s a secret you can tell him when he turns 18 or something.

Yeah. All right. Well, thank you very much for your help.

Okay.

Sure thing. Bye-bye.

What do you call your loved ones? What are your pet names? Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send them an email to words@waywordradio.org.