What does yiddish mean?

Definitions for yiddish
ˈyɪd ɪʃyid·dish

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word yiddish.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. Yiddishnoun

    a dialect of High German including some Hebrew and other words; spoken in Europe as a vernacular by many Jews; written in the Hebrew script

Wiktionary

  1. Yiddishnoun

    A West Germanic language that developed from Middle High German dialects, with an admixture of vocabulary from multiple source languages including Hebrew-Aramaic, Romance, Slavic, English, etc., and written in Hebrew characters which is used mainly among Ashkenazic Jews from central and eastern Europe.

  2. Yiddishadjective

    Of or pertaining to the Yiddish language.

  3. Yiddishadjective

    Jewish.

  4. Etymology: The etymology of this word is mostly obscure. ייִדיש, from Yidish Daytsh, from jüdisch diutsch, cognate with German jüdisch. (also called Judeo-German, Judendeutsch; see Ashkenazi)

Wikipedia

  1. Yiddish

    Yiddish (ייִדיש, יידיש or אידיש, yidish or idish, pronounced [ˈ(j)ɪdɪʃ], lit. 'Jewish'; ייִדיש-טײַטש, Yidish-Taytsh, lit. 'Judeo-German') is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with many elements taken from Hebrew (notably Mishnaic) and to some extent Aramaic. Most varieties of Yiddish include elements of Slavic languages and the vocabulary contains traces of Romance languages. Yiddish is primarily written in the Hebrew alphabet. Prior to World War II, its worldwide peak was 11 million, with the number of speakers in the United States and Canada then totaling 150,000. Eighty-five percent of the approximately six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust were Yiddish speakers, leading to a massive decline in the use of the language. Assimilation following World War II and aliyah (immigration to Israel) further decreased the use of Yiddish among survivors after adapting to Hebrew in Israel. However, the number of Yiddish-speakers is increasing in Hasidic communities. In the 1990s, there were around 1.5–2 million speakers of Yiddish, mostly Hasidic and Haredi Jews. A 2021 estimate from Rutgers University was that there were 250,000 American speakers, 250,000 Israeli speakers, and 100,000 in the rest of the world (for a total of 600,000).The earliest surviving references date from the 12th century and call the language לשון־אַשכּנז (loshn-ashknaz, "language of Ashkenaz") or טײַטש (taytsh), a variant of tiutsch, the contemporary name for Middle High German. Colloquially, the language is sometimes called מאַמע־לשון (mame-loshn, lit. "mother tongue"), distinguishing it from לשון־קודש (loshn koydesh, "holy tongue"), meaning Hebrew and Aramaic. The term "Yiddish", short for Yidish Taitsh ("Jewish German"), did not become the most frequently used designation in the literature until the 18th century. In the late 19th and into the 20th century, the language was more commonly called "Jewish", especially in non-Jewish contexts, but "Yiddish" is again the most common designation today.Modern Yiddish has two major forms. Eastern Yiddish is far more common today. It includes Southeastern (Ukrainian–Romanian), Mideastern (Polish–Galician–Eastern Hungarian) and Northeastern (Lithuanian–Belarusian) dialects. Eastern Yiddish differs from Western both by its far greater size and by the extensive inclusion of words of Slavic origin. Western Yiddish is divided into Southwestern (Swiss–Alsatian–Southern German), Midwestern (Central German), and Northwestern (Netherlandic–Northern German) dialects. Yiddish is used in a number of Haredi Jewish communities worldwide; it is the first language of the home, school, and in many social settings among many Haredi Jews, and is used in most Hasidic yeshivas. The term "Yiddish" is also used in the adjectival sense, synonymously with "Ashkenazi Jewish", to designate attributes of Yiddishkeit ("Ashkenazi culture"; for example, Yiddish cooking and "Yiddish music" – klezmer).

ChatGPT

  1. yiddish

    Yiddish is a High German-derived language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a High German-based vernacular fused with elements taken from Hebrew and Aramaic as well as Slavic and Romance languages. Significant languages such as English have subsequently borrowed from Yiddish. While it is used less now, it was the primary language for Ashkenazi Jews for more than a thousand years.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Yiddish

    yid′ish, n. a strange compound of very corrupt Hebrew and ancient or provincial German spoken by the commoner Jews—extensively in the East End of London.—ns. Yid, Yidd′isher, a Jew. [Ger. jüdisch, Jewish.]

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

  1. Yiddish

    a kind of mongrel language spoken by foreign Jews in England.

Matched Categories

Usage in printed sourcesFrom: 

How to pronounce yiddish?

How to say yiddish in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of yiddish in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of yiddish in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of yiddish in a Sentence

  1. Isaac Bleaman:

    The Yiddish is laughably bad. That's unfortunate, because an outbreak of measles is a serious matter.

  2. Chaya Nove:

    These errors are not dialectal differences in the The Yiddish language.

  3. Isaac Bleaman:

    The Yiddish's just The Yiddish, not only that, but some of the words in The Yiddish are misspelled.

  4. Felix Klein:

    I call on all citizens of Berlin and across Germany to wear the yarmulke( as the skullcap is known in Yiddish) next Saturday if there are new, intolerable attacks targeting Israel and Jews on the occasion of Al-Quds Day in Berlin, by doing this we can show a great sign of solidarity with the Jewish community and make a statement for the freedom of religion and the diversity of our society.

  5. Becky Shimony:

    Former Vice President Joe Biden's just so inspirational. We have an expression in Yiddish : Former Vice President Joe Biden's Former Vice President Joe Biden. Somebody who's real and honest and has good character. We just love him so much.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

yiddish#10000#22135#100000

Translations for yiddish

From our Multilingual Translation Dictionary

Get even more translations for yiddish »

Translation

Find a translation for the yiddish definition in other languages:

Select another language:

  • - Select -
  • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
  • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
  • Español (Spanish)
  • Esperanto (Esperanto)
  • 日本語 (Japanese)
  • Português (Portuguese)
  • Deutsch (German)
  • العربية (Arabic)
  • Français (French)
  • Русский (Russian)
  • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
  • 한국어 (Korean)
  • עברית (Hebrew)
  • Gaeilge (Irish)
  • Українська (Ukrainian)
  • اردو (Urdu)
  • Magyar (Hungarian)
  • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
  • Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Italiano (Italian)
  • தமிழ் (Tamil)
  • Türkçe (Turkish)
  • తెలుగు (Telugu)
  • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
  • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
  • Čeština (Czech)
  • Polski (Polish)
  • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
  • Românește (Romanian)
  • Nederlands (Dutch)
  • Ελληνικά (Greek)
  • Latinum (Latin)
  • Svenska (Swedish)
  • Dansk (Danish)
  • Suomi (Finnish)
  • فارسی (Persian)
  • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
  • հայերեն (Armenian)
  • Norsk (Norwegian)
  • English (English)

Word of the Day

Would you like us to send you a FREE new word definition delivered to your inbox daily?

Please enter your email address:


Citation

Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:

Style:MLAChicagoAPA

"yiddish." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 22 Dec. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/yiddish>.

Discuss these yiddish definitions with the community:

0 Comments

    Are we missing a good definition for yiddish? Don't keep it to yourself...

    Image or illustration of

    yiddish

    Credit »

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Chrome

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Free, no signup required:

    Add to Firefox

    Get instant definitions for any word that hits you anywhere on the web!

    Quiz

    Are you a words master?

    »
    a custom among some peoples whereby the husband of a pregnant wife is put to bed at the time of bearing the child
    A couvade
    B slur
    C macron
    D sousing

    Nearby & related entries:

    Alternative searches for yiddish: