“The excitement of our friendship made me overlook my vampire powers.” “Hi.” “My foreskin grew back very fast. Now he thinks I'm meshuggener, which means he thinks I'm a little bit of a putz.”2023 July 27, Max Brockman & Shana Gohd, “The Campaign” (19:12 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 5, episode 4, spoken by Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak):
And, (4), we’re not really even seeing “characters” at all: it’s not Major Frank Burns, pathetic self-important putz from Fort Wayne, Indiana; it’s Larry Linville of Ojai, California, actor stoic enough to endure thousands of letters (still coming in, even in syndication) from pseudo-voyeurs berating him for being a putz from Indiana.1997, David Foster Wallace, “E Unibus Pluram”, in A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, Kindle edition, Little, Brown Book Group:
Etymology Borrowed from Pennsylvania German Putz; compare German Putz (“ornament, decoration, finery”), putzen (“to clean; decorate”). Compare the above.
1
Slang A decoration or ornament in the Nativity tradition, usually placed under a Christmas tree.
The American custom of erecting a putz seems to have originated with the Moravians but the custom long ago spread to non-Moravian households. Essentially, the putz is a landscape, built on the floor or on a table or portable platform.1995, Joe L. Wheeler, Christmas in My Heart, Book 4, pages 12-13:
putz
verb
Etymology Borrowed from Pennsylvania German Putz; compare German Putz (“ornament, decoration, finery”), putzen (“to clean; decorate”). Compare the above.
1
Pennsylvania, US, Slang To go around viewing the putzes in the neighborhood.
Once all good Moravians in Bethlehem went putzing between Christmas and Twelfth Night to take a look at their friends' cribs.1947, Holiday - Volume 2, Issues 1-6, page 86:
Everyone in the Moravian settlements goes putzing, visiting others' works of art.1978, Mildred Jordan, The Distelfink Country of the Pennsylvania Dutch, page 141:
1 more example
One Christmas custom that was very much the rage in the last years of the nineteenth century and the early decades of the twentieth, was the putzing party. In the days when there were many putzes built in Bethlehem private homes, it was the practice to organize groups to wander around and visit the families who had erected these wonderful Christmas displays.1985, Richmond E. Myers, Christmas traditions: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, →ISBN, page 43: