Yiddish has a plethora of unflattering words for different personality types, including nudnik, shmendrik, shlump, shmo, nebbish, klutz, putz, pisher, alte kaker, Chaim Yankl, Kuni Leml, shmuck and shnorer. Two more that could be added to this list are often confused: shlemiel and shlimazel. The former is someone who is foolish, the latter is someone who is unlucky. But in both cases, the person in question too often ends up in sticky situations.
A shlemiel is a fool or simpleton. This person has little common sense and is hopelessly naive and trusting, willing to invest their life savings with the next person hawking a get rich scheme. The shlemiel might also be someone who is clumsy. A Yiddish proverb explains it this way: A shlemiel is someone who falls on his back and breaks his nose. In this way, the shlemiel is a cousin to the nebbish. However, as Leo Rosten explains in The Joys of Yiddish, the nebbish is to be pitied, while the shlemiel is more actively disliked.
A shlimazel, by contrast, is someone who is unlucky. The word comes from the Hebrew word mazel, which means luck, and the German word shlimm, which means terrible. As one proverb puts it, when a shlimazel sells umbrellas, the sun comes out. A darker version has it that when a shlimazel manufactures shrouds, people stop dying.
Both characters experience setbacks, but while a shlemiel can ultimately be successful despite their oafishness, a shlimazel cannot because luck never turns in their favor. The shlimazel, unlike the shlemiel, can be capable and likeable, they just never catch a break. A common Yiddish proverb sums up the difference between these two types: A shlemiel is someone who spills hot soup — and it lands on the shlimazel. Despite these technical differences, however, in common parlance they are sometimes used interchangeably, both essentially meaning loser.
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