erev

Pronunciations

Definitions

  • n. The day before a Jewish holiday.

  • n. The evening when a Jewish holiday starts.

  • n. (tongue-in-cheek) The evening before a non-Jewish holiday.

  • prep. Before.

  • prep. On the eve of (attached before a Jewish holiday's name).

Example Sentences

  • "What are you doing erev Rosh Hashanah?"

  • "This is a practical matter for erev Yom Kippur when many people have the minhag to suck candies all day." (source)

  • "I'm flying out erev Thanksgiving."

Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • TH ערב > Y ערבֿ erev

    • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education

      Regions

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

      Dictionaries

      • 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).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).

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