The word ''kike'' () is an
ethnic slur
The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or ot ...
for a
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
.
Etymology
The earliest recorded use of the word dates to the 1880s.
[Kim Pearson's ''Rhetoric of Race'']
by Eric Wolarsky. The College of New Jersey
The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is a public university in Ewing Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Established in 1855 as the New Jersey State Normal School, TCNJ was the first normal school, or ...
.
According to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
'', it may be an alteration of the endings –''ki'' or –''ky'' common in the personal names of
Jews in eastern Europe who immigrated to the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
in the early 20th century.
A variation or expansion of this theory published in ''
Our Crowd'', by
Stephen Birmingham, postulates that the term "kike" was coined as a put-down by the assimilated U.S. Jews from Germany to identify eastern European and
Russian Jews
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
: "Because many Russian
ewishnames ended in 'ki', they were called 'kikes'—a German Jewish contribution to the American vernacular. The name then proceeded to be co-opted by non-Jews as it gained prominence in its usage in society, and was later used as a general derogatory slur."
The ''Encyclopedia of Swearing'' suggests that
Leo Rosten
Leo Calvin Rosten (Yiddish: ; April 11, 1908 – February 19, 1997) was an American humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism, and Yiddish lexicography.
Early life
Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in Łód ...
's suggestion is the most likely.
He stated that:
Compounding the mysterious origin of this term, in 1864 in the UK the word ''ike'' or ''ikey'' was used as a derogatory term for Jews, which derived from the name "Isaac", a common Jewish name.
[Encyclopedia of Swearing: Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language, and Ethnic Slurs in the English Speaking World / Geoffrey Hughes. Armonk, N.Y. : M. E. Sharpe, c2006.][New Dictionary of American Slang/ edited by Robert L. Chapman. New York: Harper & Crow. c1986.]
Usage
Some sources say that the first use was on
Ellis Island
Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mil ...
as a term for Jewish people,
[The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang/ compiled by John Ayto, John Simpson. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, c2005.] others that it was used primarily by Jewish-Americans to put down Jewish immigrants.
In a travel report from 1937 for the German-Jewish publication ''
Der Morgen
''Der Morgen'' (''The Morning'') was a daily newspaper published in the GDR. ''Der Morgen'' was the central organ of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany. It was published from 3 August 1945 on, six times a week. The premises of the first i ...
'',
Joachim Prinz
Joachim Prinz (May 10, 1902 – September 30, 1988) was a German-American rabbi who was outspoken against Nazism and became a Zionist leader. As a young rabbi in Berlin, he was forced to confront the rise of Nazism, and eventually emigrated t ...
, writing of the situation of Jewish immigrants in the US, mentions the word as being used by Jews to refer contemptuously to other (Eastern) Jews:
:: It is not uplifting to see how confused the perceptions are, how little the immigrants have learnt, how happy some of them are to have escaped the life of a Jew
'or:'' the Jewish fate and how haughty many of them are. It is saddening that they are very unpopular in many circles, and bewildering is the stupidity of those who contemptuously call the Eastern Jews (who support them after all!) "kikes"
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See also
*
Kikeout Mountain Kikeout Mountain is a summit in Kinnelon borough, Morris County, New Jersey, in the United States.
The name Kikeout derives from the Dutch word ''kijkuit'', meaning "lookout". "Kakeout" is the local pronunciation of the name of the mountain and adj ...
*
List of common nouns derived from ethnic group names
This is a list of common nouns, used in the English language, whose etymology goes back to the name of some, often historical or archaic, ethnic or religious group, but whose current meaning has lost that connotation and does not imply any actual e ...
*
List of ethnic slurs
The following is a list of ethnic slurs or ethnophaulisms or ethnic epithets that are, or have been, used as insinuations or allegations about members of a given ethnicity or racial group or to refer to them in a derogatory, pejorative, or ...
*
Profanity
Profanity, also known as cursing, cussing, swearing, bad language, foul language, obscenities, expletives or vulgarism, is a socially offensive use of language. Accordingly, profanity is language use that is sometimes deemed impolite, rud ...
*
Yid
References
External links
*
{{Religious slurs
Antisemitic slurs
English words