סְטוּץ

The word "סְטוּץ" (stutz) entered Israeli slang in the early 1970s. According to an article published in "HaOlam HaZeh" in January 1983, the person who introduced the word was actor, director, producer, and impresario Tzvi Shissel. The word first appeared in writing in November 1972 in the column "Abnormal Hebrew" by Dan Ben-Amotz and Netiva Ben-Yehuda. The word had an especially broad semantic range in its early years and was used to describe a wide variety of events, parties, or affairs in general. In the 1970s and during the 1980s, it was particularly popular among children and teenagers, and was also used in the names of products, events, and programs aimed at young audiences, such as the humor segment "Stutz" on the radio program "Cat in a Sack" (1978), "Stutz Stool" (1984), "Stutz Bag" (fanny pack, 1986), the "Stutz 86" festival, and "Stutz" snack (1988). In the early 1980s, the word began to lose its popularity among young people, and in a 1984 article, journalist Doron Rosenblum claimed that it was difficult to use the word "stutz" over the age of 30. In 1985, historian Tom Segev reported that the word "keta" (piece, segment) had replaced "stutz" in youth slang. However, one use of the word remains to this day: a one-time sexual encounter, and by extension, a one-time event in general. The origin of the word is not entirely clear, but the accepted hypothesis is that it is a corruption of the Yiddish word "shtus" (nonsense, folly) whose pronunciation is similar to "shtutz."