heimish

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Pronunciations

heimish (HAY-mish) listen

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Definitions

  • adj. Familiar, homey, informal, cozy, warm.

  • adj. Unpretentious; unsophisticated.

  • adj. Haredi Orthodox.

Example Sentences

  • "The president does have a heimishe neshama" (Call Your Zeyde: source)

  • "I only eat food with haimish hashgacha."

  • "This condo is my favorite so far. It feels so heymish."

  • "The bochrim felt heimish enough by the balebatim to help themselves to anything in the fridge.” (Weiser)

  • “President Truman was ever so heymish. No one in his right mind would call Generals de Gaulle and MacArthur heymish.” (NJY)

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Languages of Origin

  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • הײמיש heymish 'homey; cozy; familiar' (from הײם heym 'home')

      • Who Uses This

      • Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)
      • Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements

      Regions

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

      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).
      • Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).
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      Alternative Spellings

      haimish, heymish, haymish, hamish, heimishe, haimishe, haymishe, hamishe, heimisher, haimisher, heymisher, haymisher, hamisher

Notes

  • Haredi Jews use "heimish" as an adjective for individuals, events, businesses, and institutions, indicating that they are in-group. Other Jews use it with the more general meaning of "homey". Orthodox communities sometimes use the inflected form "heimishe" preceding a noun.

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