shibboleth

shibboleth
\ \ [14] Hebrew shibbōleth meant ‘stream’. According to the Bible, the Gileadites used it as a password, for they knew their enemies the Ephraimites could not pronounce the sh properly (‘And it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay, then they said unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right’, Judges 12:5–6). In 17th-century English it came to be applied generically to any word used as a test of pronunciation, particularly as a sign of belonging to a group, and hence by extension to any catchword or slogan adopted by a group, and this eventually evolved into the modern sense ‘outmoded slogan, practice, etc still adhered to’.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Shibboleth — (IPAEng|ˈʃɪbəlɛθcite encyclopedia|ency=Oxford English Dictionary|edition=second|year=1989|article=shibboleth] or IPAEng|ˈʃɪbələθcite web|work=Merriam Webster Online Dictionary |title=shibboleth |url=http://m w.com/dictionary/shibboleth] ) is any… …   Wikipedia

  • Shibboleth — se refiere a cualquier uso de la lengua indicativo del origen social o regional de una persona, y de forma más amplia cualquier práctica que identifique a los miembros de un grupo, una especie de santo y seña. Etimología Su origen es la palabra… …   Wikipedia Español

  • Shibboleth — Shib bo*leth, n. [Heb. shibb[=o]leth an ear of corn, or a stream, a flood.] 1. A word which was made the criterion by which to distinguish the Ephraimites from the Gileadites. The Ephraimites, not being able to pronounce sh, called the word… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • shibboleth — late 14c., the Hebrew word shibboleth flood, stream, also ear of corn, in Judges xii:4 6. It was the password used by the Gileadites to distinguish their own men from fleeing Ephraimites, because Ephraimites could not pronounce the sh sound.… …   Etymology dictionary

  • shibboleth — The primary meaning in current English is ‘a custom or phrase that distinguishes a particular class or group of people’, either one approved of or one deprecated in others • (Apparently, to wear a hat in the cafeteria was a student shibboleth I.… …   Modern English usage

  • shibboleth — index catchword Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • shibboleth — *catchword, byword, slogan …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • shibboleth — ► NOUN ▪ a custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people. ORIGIN originally in the sense «a word or sound which a foreigner is unable to pronounce»: from Hebrew, ear of corn (according to the Book of Judges,… …   English terms dictionary

  • shibboleth — [shib′ə leth΄, shib′ələth] n. [ME sebolech, after LL(Ec) sciboleth < Heb shibolet, a stream: pres. meaning from the use of the word as a test word] 1. the test word used by the men of Gilead to distinguish the escaping Ephraimites, who… …   English World dictionary

  • Shibboleth — Pour les articles homonymes, voir Shibboleth (homonymie). Un shibboleth (ou schibboleth (שבולת en hébreu, prononcé [ʃibɔ …   Wikipédia en Français

  • shibboleth — noun Etymology: Hebrew shibbōleth stream; from the use of this word in Judges 12:6 as a test to distinguish Gileadites from Ephraimites Date: 1638 1. a. a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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