kike
/kaɪk/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.40 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A miser; a contemptible, stingy person, particularly a well-endowed one.
American usage; Offensive; Slang
Example Sentences
- ""Now you quit kidding me! What's the nice little name?" "Oh, it ain't so darn nice. I guess it's kind of kike. But my folks ain't kikes. My papa's papa was a nobleman in Poland, and there was a gentleman in here one day, he was kind of a count or something--""
- "In one tweet, Weisman was referred to as a "kike." Another threatened to have him put "in the oven.""
- "Potok in case you don’t know, is a devious kike who works for the Southern Poverty Law Center which is a notorious anti-White hate group."
- "That greedy kike would not give me any money when I was starving and needed food."
- "The German Jews are bitterly opposed to the "Kikes," as they persist in calling the Russian Jews."
- "If you repeat that lie, I'll wring that skinny kike neck of yours with my own hands!"
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷelh₁-redup. Proto-Indo-European *-os Proto-Indo-European *kʷékʷlos Proto-Hellenic *kʷókʷlos Proto-Hellenic *kúklos Ancient Greek κύκλος (kúklos)der. Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl)der.? English kike Originally used by German-American Jews as a slur for Eastern European Jews immigrating to the United States. The most dominant theory is from Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl, “circle”). In the early 20th century, non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X, in order to avoid using a symbol reminiscent of a Christian Cross. If so, a doublet of chakra, chakram, charkha, chukker, cycle, cyclus, and wheel. Other theories also exist, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase “Ikey-Kikey”, an American-origin reduplication of ikey, which in turn is a British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the name Isaac. Alternatively, from Scots keek (“to peek or peep surreptitiously”), used in the New York City clothing industry to refer to the practice of sending spies to work in competing garment factories to copy designs which would then be reproduced and sold at lower cost. Eastern European Jews played a major role in the clothing industry and were perceived to frequently participate in underhanded business tactics. Originally mostly used by older, established German Jews to refer to the Eastern European newcomers, eventually it became generalized to all Jews.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Usage
- American usage
- Offensive
- Slang
- Obsolete
- Transitive verb
- Dated
- Derogatory
Inflected Forms
kikes (plural)
kyke (alternative)
kikes (present, singular)
kiking (participle, present)
kiked (participle, past)
kiked (past)
more kike (comparative)
most kike (superlative)