Kike

Kike ( /ˈkaɪk/) is a derogatory slur used to refer to a Jew.[1]

Etymology

The source of the term is uncertain. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, 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 in the early 20th century.[2] The first recorded use of the term is in 1904.[2][3]

According to Our Crowd, by Stephen Birmingham, the term "kike" was coined as a put-down by the assimilated U.S. Jews from Germany to identify eastern European 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 generally derogatory slur.."

According to Leo Rosten,

The word kike was born on Ellis Island when there were Jewish immigrants who were also illiterate (or could not use Latin alphabet letters), when asked to sign the entry-forms with the customary 'X,'* refused, because they associated an X with the cross of Christianity, and made a circle in its place. The Yiddish word for 'circle' is kikel (pronounced KY-kul), and for 'little circle,' kikeleh (pronounced ky-kul-uh). Before long the immigration inspectors were calling any who signed with an 'O' in placeof an 'X' a kikel or kikeleh or kikee or, finally and succinctly, kike.[4]

According to Rosten, Jewish U.S. merchants continued to sign with an 'O' in place of an 'X' for several decades, spreading the nickname kike wherever they went as a result. At that time kike was more of an affectionate term, used by Jews to describe other Jews [5], and only developed into a slur later on.[3]

One more theory traces the origin of the term much earlier in time, to the 16th Century Pope Clement VIII, noted for his anti-Jewish stance. Among other things, he issued a prohibition on the reading of the Talmud.[6] in which a reference was made to the "blind (Latin: caeca) obstinacy" of the Jews. According to this theory, "caeca" developed eventually into "kike".

See also

References

  1. ^ Thomas Friedmann "Heard Any Good Jews Lately? " pg 260 in Counterbalance: gendered perspectives for writing and language Carolyn Logan, ed.
  2. ^ a b "kike, adj." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online. Oxford University Press. Accessed 15 Dec. 2009 <http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50126572>.
  3. ^ a b Kim Pearson's Rhetoric of Race by Eric Wolarsky. The College of New Jersey.
  4. ^ Leo Rosten: The Joys of Yiddish, cited in Kim Pearson's Rhetoric of Race by Eric Wolarsky. The College of New Jersey.
  5. ^ similar to Afro-Americans sometimes using "Nigger" among each other in a non-pejorative way
  6. ^ S. Wendehorst, "Katholische Kirche und Juden in der Frühen Neuzeit" 1.3 "Zensur des Talmud", following Willchad Paul Eckert, "Catholizmus zwischen 1580 und 1848" in Karl Heinrich Rengstorf and Siegfried Kortzfleisch, eds. Kirche und Sinagoge II (Stuttgart, 1970) p. 232.