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Shamus is a Jewish word. When used to mean a private investigator it does NOT come from the name Seamus as stated in your site's definition. I believe the word was first used in that sense by Dashiell Hammett, a non-Jew, who was taught Yiddish by his lover, the Jewish writer Lillian Hellman. Hammett gave a number of Jewish words new meanings in his novels. A shamus is a kind of non-Jewish handyman who works at a synagogue. Among other things, the shamus performs tasks Jews are forbidden to perform -- for example, turning the lights off and on, on the Sabbath. Hammett made him a private eye. Similarly, he turned the Jewish word "gonsel" into "gunsel," a weasly gun-toting killer.
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Irish bodyguard names?
shamus
Does Shamus mean James in Gaelic?
'Shamus' is an English phonetic spelling of the Irish Séamus and Scottish Gaelic Seumas which are equivalents of James.
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What does shamus mean in galic?
In Scottish Gaelic it is spelled Seumas; in Irish Gaelic it is Séamas. The are versions of James.
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Irish Jewish Museum was created in 1985.
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Irish Gaelic Séamus (shamus).
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