kike
English
editEtymology
editThought 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- IPA(key): /kaɪk/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -aɪk
Noun
editkike (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
editkike (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
editTranslations
edit
|
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
editAnagrams
editJapanese
editRomanization
editkike
Norwegian Bokmål
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle Low German kîken. Related to Swedish kika.
Pronunciation
editVerb
editkike (imperative kik, present tense kiker, past tense keik or kek, past participle kiket, present participle kikende)
Related terms
editReferences
edit- “kike” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
Norwegian Nynorsk
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editFrom Middle Low German kiken.
Pronunciation
editVerb
editkike (present tense kik or kikar, past tense keik or kika, supine kike, past participle kiken or kika, present participle kikande, imperative kik)
Related terms
editReferences
edit“kike” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
Swahili
editPronunciation
editAdjective
edit-a kike (invariable)
- English terms derived from Yiddish
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/aɪk
- Rhymes:English/aɪk/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- American English
- English offensive terms
- English ethnic slurs
- English religious slurs
- English terms with quotations
- English terms with usage examples
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with uncommon senses
- en:Judaism
- en:People
- English swear words
- English vulgarities
- Japanese non-lemma forms
- Japanese romanizations
- Norwegian Bokmål terms derived from Middle Low German
- Norwegian terms with IPA pronunciation
- Norwegian Bokmål lemmas
- Norwegian Bokmål verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk terms derived from Middle Low German
- Norwegian Nynorsk lemmas
- Norwegian Nynorsk verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk strong verbs
- Norwegian Nynorsk class 1 strong verbs
- Swahili terms with audio pronunciation
- Swahili lemmas
- Swahili adjectives
- Swahili indeclinable adjectives
- sw:Female