minhag

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Pronunciations

minhag (MIN-hahg) listen

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Definitions

  • n. A religious custom, tradition.

Example Sentences

  • "It's not halacha; it's just minhag."

  • "What is this newfangled (or perhaps even not so newfangled) business where people mix up minhagim from different sources, to their liking?" (source)

  • "In our family we have a minhag of using olive oil for the Chanukah lights." (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • TH מנהג minhág > Y מינהג mineg

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education

      Regions

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

      Dictionaries

      • The JPS Dictionary of Jewish Words, by Joyce Eisenberg and Ellen Scolnic, (Philadelphia, 2001).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
      • Dictionary of Jewish Usage: A Popular Guide to the Use of Jewish Terms, by Sol Steinmetz (Lanham, MD, 2005).
      • Yiddish and English: A Century of Yiddish in America, by Sol Steinmetz (Tuscaloosa, 1986).
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      Alternative Spellings

      minheg, mineg, minag

Notes

  • plural: 'minhagim' or 'minhogim'

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