Kike
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Script error: No such module "Protection banner".Kike (Script error: No such module "IPAc-en".), also known as the K-word,Script error: No such module "Footnotes".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". is an ethnic slur directed at Jews. The etymological origin comes from the Yiddish word for circle, Script error: No such module "Lang". (kaykel), itself a derivation of the Ancient Greek word Script error: No such module "Lang"..
Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word 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 in the early 20th century.[1] A variation or expansion of this theory published in Our Crowd (1967), 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: "Because many Russian [Jewish] names 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's suggestion is the most likely.[2] He stated that: Template:Quote
The Yiddish word Script error: No such module "Lang". (kikel) probably descends from the Ancient Greek word for circle, Script error: No such module "Lang". (kyklos). Ironically, this Greek word also gave rise to the name of the Ku Klux Klan, an American hate group.[3]
Compounding the mysterious origin of this term, in 1864 in the United Kingdom the word ike or ikey was used as a derogatory term for Jews, which derived from the name "Isaac", a common Jewish name.[2][4]
Usage
In a travel report from 1937 for the German-Jewish publication Script error: No such module "Lang"., Joachim Prinz, writing of the situation of Jewish immigrants in the US, allegedly mentioned the word as being used by Jews to denigrate other Ashkenazi Jews:
The slur was spotted in several protests, with a Jewish woman being called that at a Biden fundraiser in 2024.[5][6] A similar incident of the slur being used happened at California's Occidental College and Pomona College, against which the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law filed Title VI[7] complaints on behalf of the assaulted Jewish students.[8][9]
See also
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- Kikeout Mountain (since renamed Kakeout Mountain due to controversy)
- List of common nouns derived from ethnic group names
- List of ethnic slurs
- Profanity
- Yid
- Goy
References
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- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ a b 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.
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- ↑ New Dictionary of American Slang/ edited by Robert L. Chapman. New York: Harper & Crow. c1986.
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Sources
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