oilam

Alternative Spellings

oylem, oylam

Definitions

• the world; the public
• a group of people

Example Sentences

• "I was just by a bunch of your chevre last Motzei Shabbos. Nu? Wanna tell the oilam?"
• "The yeshivishe oilam doesn't watch TV (Weiser 75)

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew, Yiddish, English

Etymology

עולם - world, public, audience

Who Uses This

Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)
Yeshivish

Regions

North America

Dictionaries

Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).

Notes

One contributor writes: After a game of Jewish Geography, you take a Snapchat selfie with the person/people in question to let your mutual friends know that you ran into each other, and you say, "Wanna tell the oilam?"