Obama chmo!

"Obama chmo!" (Russian: Обама - чмо (English translations: "Obama is schmuck"[1] or "Obama is a schmoe"[2]) is a Russian-language slogan used in Russia to mock President of the United States Barack Obama. It is featured on bumper stickers and as text on clothes.[1]

In 2015, the sales of patriotic bumper stickers, such as the St. George ribbon, started to include aggressive Anti-American ones: "Обама чмо", "Обама обезьяна" ("Obama the monkey"), "Я против того, чтобы такое говно, как Америка, правило миром" ("I'm against the rule of American shit over the world"), "Куплю кожу Обамы дорого", and so on. [3] "Обама чмо" became pervasive in Russian pop culture.[2] A clip with Russian comedian Mikhail Zadornov rapping and using the phrase was released on YouTube.[3][2] The phrase was even seen from space on a runway at the Russian airbase in Latakia, Syria.[2]

"Oбама - чмо" was selected as the 2015 Russian "Word of the Year" in the "anti-language" category.[4][5]

Etymology

The Russian vulgarity чмо is variously transliterated as tshmo, tsmo (t͡ɕmo). The origin is unclear. Some find the word "chmo" to be of Yiddish origin (Yiddish: שמאָק‎, penis). The word has two basic meanings: a dirty, untidy man and a generic nonspecific insult. There is also a number of folk etymologies, "backronyms" , such as ChMO - chelovek (Russian: человек, man) moralno (Russian: морально, morally) opushchenny (Russian: опущенный put down), человек, мало образованный; человек мешающий обществу, человек морально отсталый, etc., probably because the word is short and without declensions.[6] Professor Sergei Zhuk gives another explanation: the word originated in military slang, and originally referred to army rookies coming from Moscow and environs. Unlike able-bodied countryside or working-class men, the rookies coming from the capital city were inept and feeble. They were labelled with the abbreviation ChMO, meaning "Chelovek Moskovskoy Oblasti" ("a person from Moscow Oblast").[7]

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