Schmear is a word of Germanic origin, equivalent to "smear" or "spread" (usually fat or butter).
In some Germanic languages, the cognate of smear itself means butter (c.f.
The use and spelling of schmear or shmear in American English is a direct loanword from Yiddish, where its original usage referred to cheese.
[2] In some cases, it refers to "an entire set or group of related things", or the expression "the whole shmear".
[citation needed] As a slang term, the word shmir in Yiddish can also refer to a slap on the face, primarily when disciplining young children.