schlock
UK[ʃlɒk]US[ʃlɑːk]
n
Cheap, shoddy, or inferior goods; trashy material.
Etymology
The word 'schlock' entered mainstream American English from Yiddish, where 'shlak' means a blow, stroke, or, figuratively, something wretched or defective. The Yiddish term itself derives from German 'Schlag', meaning a hit or strike. The semantic journey moved from the concrete notion of a physical blow to the abstract idea of something that is a "hit" in a negative sense—something cheap, damaged, or of very poor quality. It is a prime example of a vivid, colloquial term from an immigrant language that filled a lexical gap in English for describing blatantly inferior merchandise.
Analysis
This word is a simplex loanword from Yiddish. It does not contain separable morphemes within its English spelling.
Examples
The street market was full of schlock souvenirs for the tourists.
He made a living directing schlock horror films on a tiny budget.
Don't waste your money on that schlock; it will fall apart in a week.