lashon hara

Alternative Spellings

loshn hore, loshon hora, lashon hora, leshon hara, l'shon hara

Definitions

• "gossip" (lit. "evil tongue") (JPS)

Example Sentences

• "I would tell you, but I don't want to speak lashon hara."

Languages of Origin

Textual Hebrew, Yiddish

Etymology

Heb לשון הרע lashón hará, Yiddish לשון־הרע loshn-hóre

Who Uses This

Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
Jews: Jews of diverse religious backgrounds and organizational involvements

Regions

North America

Dictionaries

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

More common among Orthodox Jews.