Vocabulary comics: "schmatta"

[brendala]

This is copy/pasted from my submission to the awesomely dorky community 1word1day!

Comments

[ms-verma.livejournal.com]

Is schmatta a word of Jewish/Yiddish origin? I'm asking because - funny thing - in Polish, we have the word szmata, pronounced very much like schmatta and having both of the above meanings (plus another one, more offensive, used to imply that a person is a slut). That similarity (plus the fact that just until WW2, there was a lot of Jewish people in Poland) led me to thinking that maybe schmatta was "borrowed" from the Jewish/Yiddish language at some point? ;)

That said, I just want to add I love your pictures! :D