sheymes

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Pronunciations

sheymes (SHEY-miss) listen

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Definitions

  • n. Printed material, such as a book or even an audio recording, that contains the name of God, and therefore must not be erased, put on the floor, etc., out of respect for the Divine Name.

  • adj. Of or relating to printed material, such as a book or even an audio recording, that contains the name of God, and therefore must not be erased, put on the floor, etc., out of respect for the Divine Name.

Example Sentences

  • "I think I'm going to drive to work today because it's raining and I don't want my sheymes books to get wet on the way."

  • "Don't put those books on the floor, sweetie—some of them might have sheymes in them..."

  • "Don't throw those books away. They're probably sheymes." (Glinert)

  • "Here, Esther, you'd better put this siddur into sheymes." (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • Y שיימע sheyme (pl. שמות sheymes) 'a stray leaf of a Jewish holy book, or any book with Hebrew characters', from TH שם shem (pl. שמות) 'name'

      • Who Uses This

      • Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)
      • Ashkenazim: Jews with Ashkenazi heritage

      Regions

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

      Dictionaries

      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).

      Alternative Spellings

      sheimos, sheymos, sheimes

Notes

  • According to Max Weinreich, the meaning of 'a torn or stray page of a sacred book' is unique to Yiddish, although the root of the word is Hebrew; hence its unusual Yiddish spelling in the singular.

    See also shemot.

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