Does Donald Trump Even Know What “Schlong” Means?

As you may have heard all over the Internet, Donald Trump was speaking about Hillary Clinton’s 2008 primary run against Barack Obama yesterday when he used a Yiddish word. Specifically, as you can see in the video above, he said: "She was favored to win, and she got schlonged.”

Schlong, FYI, is a Yiddish term for penis (a sizable one). Trump also said that Clinton needing to go to the bathroom during last weekend’s Democratic debate was “disgusting,” but coming out of his mouth that’s rather unremarkable (though totally sexist). 

Now, it’s easy to jump ahead and say that Trump using the word “schlonged” is a sexist, totally inappropriate, and objectionable way of saying that Clinton, in rough terms, got fucked in 2008. Using this kind of lanauge when talking about anyone is crass and beneath the office of the President of the United States. Using it against a woman, however, is even more problematic. Not only does it bring up the specter of sexual assault, but suggests that one defeats and gains dominance over a woman by having sex with her. It's so regressive we can't even touch it without wearing gloves. This is probably exactly what happened. This is probably what Trump meant.

Then again, his particular use of “schlong” as a verb does beg a question: does Trump even know what the word “schlong” means? 

This is tricky, for whatever he meant it wasn’t good. Still, we’ve come up with a few points worth noting on each side of this totally academic, linguistic argument here. 

First off, let’s remember that Donald Trump is an awful person who would say that kind of thing. Second, Donald Trump has used the word “putz”—the Yiddish word for “small penis”—on the campaign trail before. Finally, Trump has spent the majority of his life in either northern New Jersey or New York City, parts that we locals call the Tri-State area. As natives know, incorporating Yiddish into our daily intake and output of insults and swears is a familiar practice. This is to say that, in all likelihood, Trump knew exactly what he was saying when he said Clinton was “schlonged”. 

However, it’s also worth noting that using “schlong” as a verb is fairly unusual. Actually, it’s remarkably weird. Who says that? No one says that. Is this even a thing? Can one “schlong”? Can one be “schlonged”? What gives? Is this new? That kind of use suggests that he may have been trying to say something else (not that we want to excuse what actually came out of his mouth).

Add to that the fact that Donald Trump is prone to saying things even he doesn’t understand, and we don’t really have a clear answer for you. The answer, alas, lies deep within Trump’s mind, a place no one should ever have to go.