Talk:smidgen
RFV discussion: November 2011
The following discussion has been moved from Wiktionary:Requests for verification (permalink).
This discussion is no longer live and is left here as an archive. Please do not modify this conversation, but feel free to discuss its conclusions.
Please verify sense 2, "1/25th of a teaspoon — from the 1975 U.S Bureau of Standards"
- what is the "U.S Bureau of Standards"? does this mean NBS (now NIST), or ANSI?
- which 1975 standard? Can't we cite a standard number if this is real?
Maybe this is real, but my gut makes me very suspicious.... 124.181.113.16 08:55, 19 November 2011 (UTC)
- I'd say it's nonsense. Check this as an example. In order to avoid this becoming another unsolved discussion, I deleted the sense and wrote a usage note. --Hekaheka 06:10, 21 November 2011 (UTC)
possible alternate etymology?
I came across the definition below in an online Yiddish dictionary for the word סמיטשיק (pronounced 'smitshik'), which is the diminutive form for סמיק ('smik'), the bow of a stringed instrument. Note the second entry in which smitshik is used in a phrase with a meaning very akin to smidgen. I haven't tried to date the original use of this phrase, but curious about whether it might have crossed over into English as smidgen... "סמיטשיק דער (עס) סמיק1 דימ bow (of a stringed instrument) מיט אַ סמיטשיק אַריבער with a hair more, just a little bit over" © 2013 Comprehensive Yiddish-English Dictionary Tshikave (talk) 00:43, 16 September 2022 (UTC)