kike

See also: Kike and kiké

English

Etymology

Thought to be 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. The latter symbol was associated by these Jews with the Christian cross, a symbol that represented to them millennia of persecution. This is the dominant etymological theory, but there are others, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase ‘Ikey-Kikey’, an American-origin reduplication of Ikey, British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the name Isaac.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaɪk/

  • Audio (RP)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪk

Noun

kike (plural kikes)

1. (US, offensive, ethnic slur, religious slur) A Jew.

   Synonyms: (not always pejorative) yid, heeb, Hymie, sheeny, shylock

   • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “24”, in Babbitt:

     "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--"

2. (US, offensive) A miser; a contemptible, stingy person, particularly a well-endowed one.

   Synonym: see Thesaurus:miser

   That greedy kike would not give me any money when I was starving and needed food.

Derived terms

• kikesucker

Translations

offensive: Jewish person

• Armenian: ջհուդ (hy) (ǰhud)
• Belarusian: жыд m (žyd), жыдо́ўка f (žydóŭka)
• Bulgarian: чифу́т (bg) m (čifút), чифу́тин m (čifútin)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 猶太佬／犹太佬 (Yóutàilǎo)

• Danish: jødesmovs c, smovs c
• Dutch: neus (nl), kankerjood, smous (nl)
• Esperanto: judaĉo
• Finnish: jutsku (fi), jutku (fi)
• French: youpin (fr) m, youde m, youtre (fr) m
• German: Itzig m, Jid m, Krummnase f, Mauschel (de) m (all either archaic or restricted to right-wing slang; generally intelligible only compounds like Drecksjude m, Judenschwein n), Judensau (de) f
• Hebrew: יְהוּדוֹן‎ (yehudon)
• Icelandic: júði m
• Polish: icek (pl) m, mosiek (pl) m, parch (pl) m, żydek (pl) m, Żydzisko (pl) n
• Romanian: jidan (ro) m, jidov (ro) m, târtan (ro) m
• Russian: жид (ru) m (žid), жидо́вка (ru) f (židóvka) (historical, now offensive)
• Slovak: žid m, židovka f
• Spanish: judigüelo m, judihuelo m
• Swedish: judejävel c, judesvin n
• Yiddish: זשיד‎ m (zhid)

contemptible, stingy person — see miser

Further reading

• kike on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ekki

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• kikke

Etymology

From Middle Low German kîken. Related to Swedish kika.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /çiːke/, [çiːkə]

Verb

kike (imperative kik, present tense kiker, past tense keik or kek, past participle kiket, present participle kikende)

1. to look
2. to glance
3. to peek, peep
4. to peer
5. to gaze

Related terms

• kikkert

References

• “kike” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

• kika
• kikke
• kikka

Etymology

From Middle Low German kiken.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /²çiːkə/

Verb

kike (present tense kik or kikar, past tense keik or kika, supine kike, past participle kiken or kika, present participle kikande, imperative kik)

1. to look
2. to glance
3. to peek,
4. to peer
5. to gaze

Related terms

• kikkert

References

“kike” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swahili

Pronunciation

• Audio (Kenya)

  (file)

Adjective

-a kike (invariable)

1. feminine, female

   Antonym: -a kiume