chutzpah

Pronunciations

chutzpah (CHUTZ-puh) listen
chutzpah (choots-PAH) listen

Definitions

  • n. Guts, confidence.

  • n. Nerve, audacity.

Example Sentences

  • "He had a lot of chutzpah telling the professor that his statement was false."

Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Aramaic
  • Yiddish
  • Modern Hebrew

Etymology

  • MH חֻצְפָּה khutspa, Y חוצפּה khutspe

    • 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]).
      • Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
      • Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).

      Alternative Spellings

      hutzpah, chutspa, khuptspe, hutzpa, hutspa, chutzpa

Notes

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