kosher

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Pronunciations

kosher (KOH-sher) listen
kasher (kah-SHEHR) listen
kosher (KOH-shuh) listen

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Definitions

  • adj. Acceptable according to kashrut.

  • adj. Trustworthy, reliable.

  • adj. Acceptable according to Jewish ritual law.

Example Sentences

  • "The kosher chicken is more expensive."

  • "It's a kosher mezuzah."

  • "It's kosher with me." (Response upon asking to miss a class and making up work)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • Heb כשר kashér, Yiddish/Ashkenazi Hebrew כּשר kósher

      • Who Uses This

      • Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements
      • Non-Jews: (words that have spread outside of Jewish networks)

      Regions

      • North America
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand

      Dictionaries

      • The New Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten and Lawrence Bush (New York, 2003[1968]).
      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).
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      Alternative Spellings

      kasher

Notes

  • According to Gold, the pronunciation of kosher in American English is influenced by the [ow] vowel of "American Western Ashkenazic English," which was spoken by Jews from Germany and/or other western parts of Ashkenaz after immigration to the United States (David Gold, "Jewish English," in J. A. Fishman (ed.), Readings in the Sociology of Jewish Languages. Leiden: Brill. 280-298). British Jewish English uses the [ɔ] vowel from Northeastern Yiddish.

    See also kashrut.

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