Log in or Sign up

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A word or pronunciation that distinguishes people of one group or class from those of another.
  2. n. A word or phrase identified with a particular group or cause; a catchword.
  3. n. A commonplace saying or idea.
  4. n. A custom or practice that betrays one as an outsider.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A Hebrew word, meaning ‘ear of corn’ or ‘stream,’ used by Jephthah, one of the judges of Israel, as a test-word by which to distinguish the fleeing Ephraimites (who could not pronounce the sh in shibboleth) from his own men, the Gileadites (Judges xii. 4–6); hence, a test-word, or the watchword or pet phrase of a party, sect, or school. Similarly, during the massacre of the Sicilian Vespers, the French be trayed their nationality by inability to pronounce correctly the Italian word ciceri.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A word, especially seen as a test, to distinguish someone as belonging to a particular nation, class, profession etc.
  2. n. A common or longstanding belief, custom, or catchphrase associated with a particular group, especially one with little current meaning or truth.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. A word which was made the criterion by which to distinguish the Ephraimites from the Gileadites. The Ephraimites, not being able to pronounce sh, called the word sibboleth. See Judges xii.
  2. n. Also used in an extended sense.
  3. n. Hence, the criterion, test, or watchword of a party; a party cry or pet phrase.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a favorite saying of a sect or political group
  2. n. a manner of speaking that is distinctive of a particular group of people

Etymologies

  1. Ultimately from Hebrew šibbōlet, torrent of water, from the use of this word to distinguish one tribe from another that pronounced it sibbōlet (Judges 12:4-6).

Examples

Show 10 more examples...

Related Words

Log in or sign up to add your own related words.

Lists

These user-created lists contain the word ‘shibboleth’.

More lists containing ‘shibboleth’

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • adrian As her brain clouded over, as the memory of the views grew dim and the words of the book died away, she returned to her old shibboleth of nerves.

    A Room With A View Nov 21, 2011
  • Simon Dobby The word as I understand it is used to mean a special kind of password, where not only must the word itself be spelt correctly but pronounced correctly, too. The Ephraimites didn't have "sh" in their dialect so could not pronounce the word correctly. You could take this further and say that the word therefore can mean not just "a test" but also "a token of power". Dec 15, 2009
  • vanishedone Preferably someone willing to risk being torn apart by accidentally conjured Horrors. Nov 22, 2009
  • arby Yeah, that's the ticket! Or shtiggeth, as the case may be. Someone should invent the Lovecraft equivalent of Pig Latin. Nov 22, 2009
  • vanishedone Well, shoggoth and Shub-Niggurath are also sh...th with a double consonant near the midpoint. Nov 22, 2009
  • arby Totally agree about the Lovecraft thing! Why is it so Lovecraftian?? Is there some other 'craft coinage that is similar? Nov 22, 2009
  • nuttylichee Steven Pinker in yesterday's NYTimes:
    Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual. Jan 22, 2009
  • tankexmortis I've also heard it used to mean general behaviors (such as wearing a baseball cap backwards for 80s hip-hop kids), and not just phrasing. Dec 27, 2007
  • seanahan It arises naturally, but it is used deliberately to distinguish between the groups. Dec 19, 2007
  • kewpid Yah, the WeirdNet definition is again a little off. I think a shibboleth isn't a deliberate difference or idiosyncrasy within a group, but something that arises naturally. Dec 18, 2007
  • bilby I always imagined a shibboleth to be some kind of monument. A standing stone, a plinth, a cairn for the dead ancestors of the Shibbites. Alas, no :-(

    The Biblical passage reminds me of a kind of practical joke in Italy which involves offering a Coca-Cola to a Tuscan. Most Italians can pronounce Coca-Cola perfectly well but in the Tuscan dialect the pronunciation comes out as Hoha-hola which sounds hohahilarious. Dec 17, 2007
  • adoarns Got to quibble with the definition given at the top. It seems the extra sense of shibboleth (which comes out in the etymologic story) is that it is some idiosyncrasy of speech which enables one to tell one group from another.

    The careful parsing of terms in the abortion debate is a good example. The use of choice is a shibboleth of the pro-choice crowd. The distinction between baby and fetus is also a good example from the same context. Dec 17, 2007
  • misterpolly I have encountered it used in the sense of examples of exaggerated fastidiousness in stylistic questions, like refusing to use a preposition to end a sentence with or to boldly attack split infinitives. Dec 17, 2007
  • rolig I found it. The West Wing got it from the Book of Judges (though not directly, I suppose). There was a war between two Israelite groups, the Gileadites and the Ephraimites. The Gileadites held the passes across the Jordan River, and if someone wanted to pass they would ask him to say "Shibboleth", but the Ephraimites gave themselves away because they couldn't pronounce the "sh" properly. With dire consequences, I might add. Here's the passage:

    "And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay; then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand." – Judges, Ch. 12, vv. 5-6. Dec 9, 2007
  • kewpid I learnt it from The West Wing. Dec 9, 2007
  • rolig it's biblical isn't it? Dec 9, 2007
  • tankexmortis This is an awesome word. I totally thought it was an H.P. Lovecraft creature when I first heard it.

    THAT MAKES IT EXTRA AWESOME Dec 9, 2007

‘shibboleth’ has been looked up 3615 times, loved by 15 people, added to 144 lists, commented on 17 times, and has a Scrabble score of 20.