heimish

Alternative Spellings

haimish, heymish, haymish, hamish

Definitions

• adj. at home, comfortable
• adj. familiar, homey, informal, cozy, warm
• adj. Haredi Orthodox

Example Sentences

• "The president does have a heimishe neshama" (Call Your Zeyde: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWzCmeURev0)
• "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)

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

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).
Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).
The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001)

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," usually not about individuals. Orthodox communities sometimes use the inflected form "heimishe" preceding a noun.