hazarai

Alternative Spellings

chazeray, chazerai, khazeray, chazzerai, hazerai, chazzeray

Definitions

• "Junk, trash" (Rosten)
• junk food
• traif (non-kosher) food

Example Sentences

• "You're really going to eat that chazerai?"

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew, Yiddish

Etymology

Yiddish חזירײַ khazeráy 'filth, mess; dirty trick' (from Yiddish/Heb חזיר kházer 'pig')

Who Uses This

Older: Jews who are middle-aged and older
Ashkenazim: Jews with Ashkenazi heritage

Regions

North America

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).

Notes

Stress on final syllable.