schlepper

• Rhymes: -ɛpə(ɹ)

From schlep + -er.

schlepper (plural schleppers)

1. A servant who carries things; a porter.

   Tell the schlepper to take it up to your hotel room.

Borrowed from Yiddish שלעפּער (shleper).

schlepper (plural schleppers)

1. (derogatory) One who wanders aimlessly.

   I can't interest the little schlepper in doing his homework.

2. (derogatory) Any manual laborer, or other lowly employee.

   He's just a schlepper!

• 1999 May 23, John Lahr, “The Demon-Lover”, in The New Yorker‎^[1]:

  Woody Allen adored the scene, and sent up the figure in both film (“Love and Death”) and fiction: in a piece called “Death Knocks,” the Grim Reaper reappears for a game of gin rummy with a schlepper.

• 2021 August 6, Jennifer Miller, quoting Julie Fishkin, “Why Is It So Hard to Say Goodbye to New York City?”, in The New York Times‎^[2], →ISSN:

  Maybe because I’m this neurotic Jew — walking to the Park Slope co-op with a stroller and bags and two kids in solidarity with the other schlepper doing the same thing — here nobody schleps.

• schlep
• schmuck