Ear, nose and throat medicine

The third entry, das Ohrenschmalz, hides a word that English already owns. Das Schmalz is rendered animal fat — das Gänseschmalz, das Schweineschmalz, spread on dark bread in a country inn — and earwax is simply the ear’s own grease; the -en- in the middle only links the two halves. Yiddish took the word from German as shmalts, still meaning fat for the pan, and in the twentieth century it passed on into American English. There « schmaltz » still names rendered chicken fat in a kitchen, but far more often it means sentiment laid on thick: a « schmaltzy » ballad drips. German knows that figurative sense too, and viel Schmalz in der Stimme describes a crooner rather than a patient. In a clinic only the fat is meant, and ein Pfropf aus Ohrenschmalz is a plug of wax and nothing more. These pages explain words and give no medical advice.