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A fascinating list of words that you probably didn’t know have Jewish linguistic origins.
When you kibbitz with your friends, does your babble ever lead to a big brouhaha?
Kibbitz, babble, and brouhaha are just some of the dozens of English words that come from Jewish languages such as Hebrew, Yiddish, and Aramaic.
Here’s a fascinating list of words that many of us use every day without knowing their distant Jewish linguistic origins.
Given Jews’ penchant for debate, it’s no wonder a number of Jewish words related to speech made it into English.
Babble likely comes from a famous story in the book of Genesis recounting how people tried to build a tower – called the Tower of Bavel (Babel in English) – that would reach the very heavens to wage war against God. God thwarted their plans and toppled the tower. Back on earth, people found that instead of speaking a common language as before, they all spoke different languages, which sounded like “babble” to others (Genesis 11:1-8).
Brouhaha sounds a bit like the Hebrew phrase baruch haba, which means “welcome” in Hebrew. Many linguists believe it was a dismissive word French people used to describe the sound of Jews speaking Hebrew. English speakers adopted this French word in the 1700s.
Kibbitz sounds a bit like the call of the European lapwing bird: peewit. Medieval German speakers called the bird peewit; from there, the name possibly evolved into kibbitz and moved into Yiddish, where it meant (at various times) to chatter, to visit, or to offer advice.
Shmooze has Hebrew origins. Shmu’ot means “rumors” in Hebrew. Yiddish speakers called idle chat shmu’es; from there, the word evolved into shmuesn, meaning to chat, and entered English as shmooze, meaning to have a nice, cozy conversation.
With Judaism’s emphasis on ethical behavior, it’s no wonder many English terms come from Jewish words.
Cherub – a sweet little innocent child in English – comes from the Hebrew word for sword, cherev. In the Torah, a Cherub (cherev) is a type of angel which guards the entrance to the Garden of Eden with a fiery sword, ensuring that people never return there (Genesis 3:24).
Jubilee comes from the Hebrew yovel, an occurrence once every 50 years when all debts were erased and indentured servants were freed (Leviticus 25:10-11).
Mensch literally means “man” in Yiddish, just as it does in German, but the Jewish version of this word comes with a twist: reflecting the Jewish view that everyone is capable of being upright, honorable, and making a difference in the world. Calling someone a mensch means referring to them as a positive, good human being.
Ruthless refers to someone acting viciously, but it comes from the name of one of the heroines in the Bible, Ruth. A Moabite princess by birth, Ruth converted to Judaism and lived with her mother in law Naomi in Israel, where she displayed incredible kindness. Ruth’s great grandson was King David. “Ruth” became a byword for kindness; “ruthless” literally means having a lack of Ruth’s quality of empathy and giving.
Cider comes from the Hebrew word for drink, shaker. It was translated into Greek as sikera, and migrated into Latin as sicera. In the Middle Ages, French adopted the word as cidre, and it began to refer exclusively to strong drinks made from fermented fruit, particularly apples.
Lox migrated into English from Yiddish; Germanic speakers throughout central Europe refer to salmon as lox, lachs, or variations of the word and early Yiddish speakers adopted the term as well.
The Torah instructs us to be scrupulously honest when it comes to our weights and measures (Leviticus 19:35-36). Here are a few English terms that are derived from Jewish words.
Iota comes from the Hebrew letter Yud, which is the smallest of the Hebrew letters. Iota was the Ancient Greek form of the Yud, and soon became synonymous with anything tiny.
Jot also derived from the Hebrew letter Yud, and was the Medieval Latin form of translating the letter. As with iota, jot soon became a way to refer to anything very small.
Sabbatical derived from the Hebrew word Shabbat (Sabbath in English), the seventh day each week when we recall God’s rest on the seventh day of creation by ceasing to perform ordinary, weekday labor.
Given how negatively antisemites have viewed Jews throughout the years, it’s no wonder that quite a few Jewish terms have been given a sinister twist in English and other languages.
Bedlam was originally the nickname of England’s first mental asylum. It was formally called the Bethlem Royal Hospital. Like many old hospitals, Bethlem began as a religious order; it was founded in the 13th century as a priory dedicated to St Mary of Bethlehem. And Bethlem was corrupted to bedlam.
Bethlehem, which literally means House (bet) of Bread (lechem) in Hebrew, is a town to Jerusalem’s south. It is first mentioned in the Torah in Genesis 35:19 6 where Rachel is buried. Thousands upon thousands of people visit the Tomb of Rachel in Bethlehem today to pour out their heart in prayer.
Beelzebub is a Christian term for a malevolent being and comes from the Hebrew ba’al (lord) zevuvim (flies), the implication being that a “Lord of the Flies” would somehow be drawn to death and decay, which also attracts flies.
Cabal is an insulting term that’s derived from the Hebrew word Kabbalah, which literally means “receiving” and refers to Jewish mysticism. Reflecting the widely-held, antisemitic (and false) belief that a secret group of Jews somehow controls the world, cabal refers to such a gathering. Surprisingly, the word was popularized by Charles Dickens who used it as an acronym to help students remember the names of five government ministers in the 1600s in his book A Child’s History of England. .
Chutzpah is a Hebrew (and later also Yiddish) word that means impudence or gall. It also has a positive connotation of fearlessness and boldness, to stand up for what you believe and go against the flow.
Macabre likely comes from Medieval plays about the Maccabees, a group of Jewish fighters who resisted Greek rule in Israel a little over 2,000 years ago. Called Chorea Maccabaeorum – “dance of the Maccabees” – in Latin, the plays were often bloody and featured the martyrdom of Maccabee fighters. The plays’ name evolved to Danse Macabe in French. In time, the name evolved to Dance Macabre, and the meaning to “dance of death”.
Scapegoat originated in the Torah’s description of Yom Kippur. In ancient times, the Cohen Gadol (the High Priest who served in the Temple in Jerusalem) would take two identical goats on Yom Kippur. One goat was sacrificed in the Temple and the other was sent into the wilderness south of Jerusalem to atone for the Jewish people’s sins (Leviticus 16:5-18). “Scape” was an early English form of the word escape: the scapegoat was the goat which “escaped” being sacrificed. Today, it means one who is blamed for others’ sins.
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More About The Author
Dr. Yvette Alt Miller
Dr. Alt Miller lives with her family in Chicago, and has lectured internationally on Jewish topics. Her latest book Portraits of Valor: Heroic Jewish Women You Should Know describes the lives of 40 remarkable women who inhabited different eras and lands, giving a sense of the vast diversity of Jewish experience. It’s been praised as inspirational, fascinating, fun and educational.
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