CS Knowledge Base

• schellum, shelm, skellum, skelm, skelum

Borrowed from Dutch schelm.

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA or enPR then please add some!

• Rhymes: -ɛlm

schelm (plural schelms)

1. (Scotland) A villain or scoundrel.
   • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 201:

     Of her parents he knew nothing, except that "her father must have been a damned hundsfoot, and a schelm, for selling his own flesh and blood to Adrian Brackel;" […]

Borrowed from German Schelm or Middle Low German schelm.

• IPA^(key): /sxɛlm/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: schelm
• Rhymes: -ɛlm
• Homophone: Schelm

schelm m (plural schelmen, diminutive schelmpje n)

1. (originally) rogue, scoundrel, fiend
2. (figuratively) imp, prankster, rascal

• schelmenstreek, schelmerij, schelmstuk
• schelmachtig, schelms
• schelmenroman

• Afrikaans: skelm
• Negerhollands: skelm