kike
English edit
Etymology edit
Thought to be from Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl, “circle”). In the early 20th century, Non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X. The latter symbol was associated by these Jews with the Christian cross, a symbol that represented to them millennia of persecution.[1] This is the dominant etymological theory, but there are others, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase ‘Ikey-Kikey’, an American-origin reduplication of Ikey, British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the name Isaac.[2]
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
kike (plural kikes)
- (US, offensive, ethnic slur, religious slur) A Jew.
- 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “24”, in Babbitt:
- "Now you quit kidding me! What's the nice little name?" "Oh, it ain't so darn nice. I guess it's kind of kike. But my folks ain't kikes. My papa's papa was a nobleman in Poland, and there was a gentleman in here one day, he was kind of a count or something--"
- (US, offensive) A miser; a contemptible, stingy person, particularly a well-endowed one.
- Synonym: see Thesaurus:miser
- That greedy kike would not give me any money when I was starving and needed food.
Verb edit
kike (third-person singular simple present kikes, present participle kiking, simple past and past participle kiked)
- (transitive, offensive, uncommon) To render something more Jewish.
- (transitive, offensive, uncommon) To haggle or swindle in order to obtain a better deal from.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
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References edit
- ^ Rosten, Leo (1968) The Joys of Yiddish, New York: Pocket Books Cited in Kim Pearson (2003) “kike”, in kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu[1], (A rare usage is "kyke".), archived from the original on 2 June 2008
- ^ Kim Pearson (2003) “kike”, in kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu[2], (A rare usage is "kyke".), archived from the original on 2 June 2008
Further reading edit
Anagrams edit
Japanese edit
Romanization edit
kike
Norwegian Bokmål edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Middle Low German kîken. Related to Swedish kika.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
kike (imperative kik, present tense kiker, past tense keik or kek, past participle kiket, present participle kikende)
Related terms edit
References edit
- “kike” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
From Middle Low German kiken.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
kike (present tense kik or kikar, past tense keik or kika, supine kike, past participle kiken or kika, present participle kikande, imperative kik)
Related terms edit
References edit
“kike” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Swahili edit
Pronunciation edit
Audio (Kenya) (file)
Adjective edit
-a kike (invariable)