oilam

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Pronunciations

olam (OY-luhm) listen

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Definitions

  • n. The world; the public.

  • n. 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)

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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
      • Great Britain
      • South Africa
      • Australia / New Zealand
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      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).

      Alternative Spellings

      oylem, oylam

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?"

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