ruach

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Pronunciations

ruach (ROO-ach) listen

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Definitions

  • n. Spirit, "spiritedness, morale." (JPS)

Example Sentences

  • "The singing children had a lot of ruach." "We've got ruach, yes we do, we've got ruach, how bout you?"

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew

Etymology

  • רוח

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
      • Camp: Jews who attend or work at a Jewish overnight summer camp
      • Organizations: People involved in a professional or volunteer capacity with Jewish nonprofit organizations

      Regions

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

      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).
      • The Joys of Hebrew, by Lewis Glinert (New York, 1992).
      • Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).
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      Alternative Spellings

      ruah, ruekh

Notes

  • This word originally comes from textual Hebrew, where it meant "wind", but over time came to mean "spirit", "enthusiasm", or "soul" depending on context.

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