April 6, 2007

Congrats to the Orioles

The Orioles got off the schneid, beating Mike Mussina and the Yankmes in Yankme Stadium thanks in part to a strong pitching performance from Adam Loewen and clutch hitting by Nick Markakis. But you could have read that anywhere, or even watched the game live. Here's a little educational feature:

To be "on the schneid" means to be on a losing streak, racking up a series of losing, and especially scoreless, games. "Schneid" is actually short for "schneider," a term originally used in the card game of gin, meaning to prevent an opponent from scoring any points. "Schneider" entered the vocabulary of gin from German (probably via Yiddish), where it means "tailor." Apparently the original sense was that if you were "schneidered" in gin you were "cut" (as if by a tailor) from contention in the game. "Schneider" first appeared in the literature of card-playing about 1886, but the shortened form "schneid" used in other sports is probably of fairly recent vintage. [From Word Detective]


2 Responses:

Brien said...

I remember the first time I ever heard the expression "Off the Schneid." It was after a Redskins loss, during Steve Spurrier's press conference. He said "Quez (Jacquez Green) kept us off the schneid" and I thought he was speaking some sort of foreign (or southern) language. Russell had to explain it to me.

J-Red said...

I think Chris Berman is responsible for it being in the mainstream vernacular.

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