Germans and Yiddish

[michael mills]

Shiksa - A non Jewish woman. not insulting usually used if she has a Jewish boyfriend, and who usually ended up as in-laws.

No, this word is definitely insulting in its original meaning.

it is derived from the Hebrew "shiqquts", which is usually translated as "abomination". That word is used to denote something that in Judaism is hateful to God, or totally contrary to the law of God.

The verbal form of "shiqquts" is "shiqqets", which means literally "he acted in an abominable/hateful way". That verbal form is the origin of the Yiddish word "sheygets", as insulting description of a male Gentile.

The feminine form of "shiqqets" is "shiqqetsah", which gives the Yiddish word "shiksa".

The use of the words "sheygets" and "shiksa" to denote Gentile males and females respectively has its origin in the traditional medieval Jewish view that Gentiles were abominable people, hateful to and rejected by God. Perhaps those words have now lost some of their original religious meaning, but they are still basically insulting.

[Borys]

Shiksa - A non Jewish woman. not insulting usually used if she has a Jewish boyfriend, and who usually ended up as in-laws.

it is derived from the Hebrew "shiqquts", which is usually translated as "abomination". That word is used to denote something that in Judaism is hateful to God, or totally contrary to the law of God.

The verbal form of "shiqquts" is "shiqqets", which means literally "he acted in an abominable/hateful way". That verbal form is the origin of the Yiddish word "sheygets", as insulting description of a male Gentile.

The feminine form of "shiqqets" is "shiqqetsah", which gives the Yiddish word "shiksa".

The use of the words "sheygets" and "shiksa" to denote Gentile males and females respectively has its origin in the traditional medieval Jewish view that Gentiles were abominable people, hateful to and rejected by God. Perhaps those words have now lost some of their original religious meaning, but they are still basically insulting.

Thank you.
Very informative.
Borys

[Skyderick]

My g-grandmother distanced herself from Yiddish. She came from a bourgeois Lithuanian family, where Yiddish was considered lowly and associated with lack of education. A properly educated Jewish man or woman spoke German or French and prayed in Hebrew. My g-grandfather was an orphan and came from a very modest background, but he had a talent for languages and quickly picked up German to her satisfaction.
A non-speaker could perhaps mistake Yiddish for German, but it sounds very different from other German dialects.