Editing Shmoo (section)

===Etymology===
The origin of Capp's word "shmoo" has been the subject of [[linguistics|linguistic]] consideration by scholars for decades. Academics [[Arthur Asa Berger]] and Allan H. Orrick of [[Johns Hopkins University]] speculated by that ''shmoo'' was a thinly veiled [[phallic symbol]], and that the name derives from [[Yiddish Language|Yiddish]] ''schmuck'' (''[[schmo]]'') meaning ‘male genitalia’ or a ‘fool, contemptuous person’.<ref name=berger/><ref name=orrick/> Even prior to Berger and Orrick's explanation, Thomas Pyles at [[University of Florida]] had favored the ''shmuck'' etymology over the derivation from the Yiddish ''schmu'' (‘profit’), suggested by [[Leo Spitzer]].{{efn|Pyles assumed the cartoonist had made an unconscious association with the expletive term, and Spitze also suggested "Al Kapp" (sic.) "may not be [have been] consciously aware" when his mind evoked the Yiddish word ''schmu''. Orrick however sides with the findings of the New York State Joint Legislative that this was a conscious choice of word. Orrick points to one cartoon drawing in which the Shmoo is depicted in a suggestive (phallic) pose, and which bears the caption "Bene''dick''" (Italics is his).}}<ref name=pyles-apud-orrick/>

Spitzer noted the shmoo's providential characteristics (providing eggs and milk) in arguing his hypothesis, further explaining that in Yiddish ''schmu'' specifically connoted "illicit profit", and that the word also giving rise to term ''schmus'' ‘tale, gossip’, whose verb form ''schmusen'' or ‘shmoosing’ ([[schmooze]]) has become familiar even to non-Jews.<ref name=spitzer/> Lilian Mermin Feinsilver assessed this association with ''shmu'' ‘illicit profit’ as "pertinent", together with the observation that ''shmue'' was a [[taboo]] Yiddish term for the [[uterus]].<ref>{{citation|last=Feinsilver |first=Lilian Mermin |author-link=Lilian Mermin Feinsilver |title=The Yiddish is Showing |work=Perspectives on American English |editor-first=J. L. |editor-last=Dillard |editor-link=J. L. Dillard |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |year=2015 |orig-year=1980 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pn0DDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA240 |accessdate=<!--2012-12-10--> |isbn=<!--3110813343, -->9783110813340}}<!--1980 ed. 9789027933676--></ref>

It is one of many Yiddish slang variations that would find their way into ''Li'l Abner''. Revealing an important key to the story, Al Capp wrote that the Shmoo metaphorically represented the limitless bounty of the Earth in all its richness—in essence, [[Mother Nature]] herself. In Li'l Abner's words, "Shmoos ''hain't'' make believe. The hull [whole] earth is one!!"