Pop Culture dictionary
Shmoop
or shmoop [shmoop]
What does Shmoop mean?
Shmoop is a digital publishing company that makes study guides, book summaries, and other academic resources for students. They are known for the up-to-the-minute sense of humor they bring to their materials.
Shmoop can also be used as a term of endearment 脿 la聽shmoopie.
Related words:
- BookRags
- CliffsNotes
- GradeSaver
- Please just read the book, kids
- SparkNotes
- baby doll
Where does Shmoop come from?
Officially called Shmoop University, Shmoop was founded in 2009 by David and Ellen Siminoff, who wanted to bring fun, accessible online learning guides to students. Shmoop聽was a term David Siminoff’s Yiddish-speaking grandmother used for “moving something forward a bit.” The Siminoffs thought聽Shmoop聽was the perfect name for their efforts to give students a little push with keep-it-simple-stupid homework help.
Early on in the website, shmoop was used as an in-house verb meaning “to do” (e.g., don’t forget to shmoop your homework). It also inspired variations like Shmoopers聽(or people who use Shmoop鈥攕tudents). These usages largely fell out by聽2015.
Students have developed their own sense of聽蝉丑尘辞辞辫听for “reading book summaries on 厂丑尘辞辞辫听in lieu of the actual book” (e.g.,聽I shmooped The Great Gatsby …聽hope it’s enough for the quiz).
Examples of Shmoop
It鈥檚 a site that combines Victor Frankenstein with a hipster, refers to George Orwell 鈥淩OFL-ing鈥� and suggests that Lady Macbeth try a little hydrogen peroxide for her damned spot...Shmoop, an online learning resource that provides bulleted summaries and reference pages with a thorough dose of academic sass, has gained popularity with students...
Who uses Shmoop?
Shmoop was made for students, so the term is generally popular with students. It’s used among high-school students (the night before that essay is due; we know what you’re up to, Carl).
Naturally, use of Shmoop drops quite a bit when everyone is on summer break. No one is dying to read summaries of The Catcher in the Rye in July, apparently.
CLASS OF 2018 WE OUT THIS BITCH ID LIKE TO THANK MY MOM, PHOTOMATH AND SHMOOP FOR GETTING ME HERE
鈥� IB Problems (@IBProblemss)
厂丑尘辞辞辫听is sometimes used as a shortened form of聽shmoopie, a term of endearment (almost as degrading as honey-poo).
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of Shmoop like most terms we define on 亚洲网紅露点, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of Shmoop that will help our users expand their word mastery.