mezuzah

English

WOTD – 22 June 2011

Etymology

From post-Biblical (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Hebrew מְזוּזָה (məzûzâ, “doorpost”), with reference to Deuteronomy 6:9.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /məˈzuːzɔː/

Noun

mezuzah (plural mezuzahs or mezuzot or mezuzoth)

1. (Judaism and occasionally Christianity) A piece of parchment inscribed with Pentateuchal texts and attached in a case to the doorpost of a house, in accordance with Jewish law, that says that “the Jews must remember the Tenth Plague and the blood on the doorposts.”
   • 1973, Thomas Pynchon, Gravity's Rainbow:

     Slothrop gives him the mandala. He hopes it will work like the mantra that Enzian told him once, mba-kayere (I am passed over), mba-kayere…a spell against Marvy tonight, against Tchitcherine. A mezuzah. Safe passage through a bad night

   • 1988 September 2, Florence Hamlish Levinsohn, “A Special Connection With God”, in Chicago Reader‎^[1]:

     Lubavitchers, Penansky says, believe mezuzahs need no adornment and simply wrap them in cellophane.

   • 2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage 2007 ed., page 20:

     When Manny or either of his parents went through their front door they put a finger on their lips and then to the mezuzah on the door frame.

Translations

piece of parchment attached to the doorpost of a house

• Arabic: مِزُوزَة (mizūza)
• Catalan: mezuzà f
• Czech: mezuza f
• Danish: mezuzah c
• Dutch: mezoeza (nl) m or f
• Esperanto: mezuzo
• Finnish: mezuza
• French: mezouza (fr) f, mezouzah (fr) f
• German: Mesusa (de) f
• Greek: μεζουζά f (mezouzá)
• Hebrew: מְזוּזָה (he) f (m'zuzá)
• Italian: mezuzah f
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Japanese: メズーザー (mezūzā)
• Ladino: מזוזה f (mezuzá)
• Occitan: mezozà f
• Persian: مزوزا (mezuzâ, mezowzâ)
• Polish: mezuza (pl) f
• Portuguese: mezuzá f
• Russian: мезу́за (ru) (mezúza)
• Spanish: mezuzá (es) f
• Swedish: mezuza
• Yiddish: מזוזה f (mezuze)