chutzpah

WOTD – 23 June 2008    

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• khutzpah
• khutspah
• chutspah
• khutspe

Etymology

Originated 1890–95 from Yiddish חוצפּה (khutspe), from Mishnaic Hebrew חֻצְפָּה (khutspá), from חָצַף (khátsaf, “to be insolent”). Ultimately from Aramaic  (ḥu ṣpā) .

Pronunciation

• (RP) enPR: ᴋʜo͝otsʹpă, IPA: /ˈxʊts.pɑ/, X-SAMPA: /"xUts.pA/
• (US) enPR: ᴋʜo͝otsʹpə, IPA: /ˈxʊts.pə/, X-SAMPA: /"xUts.p@/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• (RP) enPR: ho͝otsʹpă, IPA: /ˈhʊts.pɑ/, X-SAMPA: /"hUts.pA/
• (US) enPR: ho͝otsʹpə, IPA: /ˈhʊts.pə/, X-SAMPA: /"hUts.p@/

Noun

chutzpah (uncountable)

1. (slang) Nearly arrogant courage; utter audacity, effrontery or impudence; supreme self-confidence; exaggerated self-opinion;
   • 22/01/2007, The Times, Modern Manners

     If the service is rotten and the meal a disaster, we should withhold a tip and explain why we are doing so. Few of us have the chutzpah to do this.

   • 12/11/2007, John Scalzi, Whatever, Your Creation Museum Report

     But seriously, the ability to just come out and put on a placard that the Jurassic era is temporally contiguous with the Fifth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom of Egypt — well, there’s a word for that, and that word is chutzpah.

Related terms

• chutzpadik

See also

• cheek (n.), cheekiness (n.), cheeky (adj.), immortal rind (n.)

Translations

nearly arrogant courage

• Bulgarian: безсрамие (bg) n (bezsramie), нахалство (bg) n (nahalstvo)
• Czech: voprsklost (cs) f, chucpe (cs), drzost (cs) f
• Dutch: gotspe (nl) f
• Finnish: kantti (fi)
• French: audace (fr) f, culot (fr) m
• German: Chuzpe (de) f
• Italian: sfacciataggine (it) f
• Macedonian: одважност (mk) (ódvažnost) f, дрскост (mk) (d'rskost) f
• Polish: bezczelność (pl) f, kpina (pl) f, hucpa (pl) f

• Portuguese: repichuchi (pt)
• Romanian: țâfnă (ro) f, tupeu (ro) n
• Russian: наглость (ru) (náglostʹ) f , нахальство (ru) (naxálʹstvo) n , хамство (ru) (xámstvo) n , дерзкость (ru) (dérzkostʹ) f 
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: дрскост (sh) f, дрчност (sh) f

  Roman: drskost (sh) f, drčnost (sh) f

• Spanish: desfachatez (es) f
• Yiddish: חוצפּה (yi) (khutspe) f

References

• “chutzpah” in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000.
• “chutzpah” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, v1.0.1, Lexico Publishing Group, 2006.
• "chutzpah" in WordNet 3.0, Princeton University, 2006.