treif

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Pronunciations

treif (TRAYF) listen

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Definitions

  • n. Food prohibited by the Jewish dietary laws.

  • adj. Of or related to food prohibited by the Jewish dietary laws.

  • adj. Illegal; illegitimate.

Example Sentences

  • "Of course the cheeseburger looks good, but it's, like, double treyf!"

  • "I think someone used that dairy knife on the meat, so assume it's treyf." (Glinert)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • Y טרייף⁩ treyf from TH טְרֵפָה⁩ trefá

      • Who Uses This

      • Religious: Jews who are engaged in religious observance and have some Jewish education
      • Older: Jews who are middle-aged and older
      • Ashkenazim: Jews with Ashkenazi heritage

      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).
      • 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).
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      Alternative Spellings

      trayf, treyf, trefah, trefa

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