goy
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Yiddish גוי (goy, “gentile”), from Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, “nation”).
Compare
: ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש (mamlekhet kohanim wegoy qadosh, “ […] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”) (referring to the Jewish people). The word goy technically refers not to non-Jews, but rather to a nation per se; the Jews are said to constitute a “goy”. But through common usage – namely referring to "the [other non-Jewish] nations" – the word came to colloquially refer to non-Jews.
Pronunciation
Noun
goy (plural goyim or goys or goyem)
- A non-Jew, a gentile. (See usage notes)
- 1988, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron:
- I don’t think that marriage is working, but I’m not going to be stupid about it and say she shouldn’t have married a goy.
Usage notes
This noun is sometimes taken to be offensive; speakers wishing to avoid offense may prefer the term gentile (sometimes capitalized as Gentile) or simply non-Jew.
Derived terms
Translations
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Anagrams
Ladino
Etymology
Noun
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Portuguese
Noun
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- Alternative spelling of gói
- English terms borrowed from Yiddish
- English terms derived from Yiddish
- English terms derived from Hebrew
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔɪ
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English terms with quotations
- en:Judaism
- Ladino terms borrowed from Hebrew
- Ladino terms derived from Hebrew