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shibboleth

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 22 July 2009
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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Biblical Hebrew שִׁבֹּלֶת / שיבולת (šibbṓleṯ, “ear [of wheat] or stream, torrent”). Doublet of sebboleth and Middle English sebolech, both from Late Latin sebboleth in the Vulgate.[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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shibboleth (plural shibboleths)

  2. A particular pronunciation or custom that is regarded as distinguishing members of a group from non-members, especially when used as a test.
    • 1933, “H”, in Oxford English Dictionary:
      In recent times, the correct treatment of initial h in speech has come to be regarded as a kind of shibboleth of social position.
    • 1922, Pennsylvania-German Society, The Pennsylvania-German Society, page 110:
      He also declares that "th" is the veritable English shibboleth. He advises those Germans who cannot pronounce the sound correctly to pronounce it like "d," the symbol which he regularly uses for "th" in his lessons.
  3. A common or longstanding belief, custom, or catchphrase associated with a particular group, especially one with little current meaning or truth.
    Coordinate terms: platitude, slogan, truism, catchword, catchphrase
    It's about time we abandoned the bourgeois shibboleth that earning money makes you a better person.
    • 1924, Modern Languages, page 112:
      The teacher says he must stick largely to the old methods and cling to the old shibboleths or he will naturally get bad results in the examination. Only much practice along the lines the examination is going to follow will insure a [success].
    • 1964 May, R. & M., “What chance for an outstanding prototype?”, in Modern Railways, page 319:
      I pose the iconoclastic suggestion that even at this late stage in B.R. dieselisation, rigid standardisation might be a shibboleth.
    • 2019 January 11, Tina Jordan, quoting J. K. Rowling, “Some Dos and Don’ts From Famous Writers”, in New York Times‎[1]:
      The truth is that I found success by stumbling off alone in a direction most people thought was a dead end, breaking all the 1990s shibboleths about children’s books in the process.
    • 2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 2, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part I. The New Deal Order, 1930–1980:
      Yet LBJ was very much a product of the Cold War, believing its shibboleths about communist conquest being irreversible and requiring worldwide containment even when a country, such as Vietnam, that might be falling to the communists did not threaten US national interests.
    • 2025 March 17, Andrew Marantz, quoting Hasan Piker, “The Battle for the Bros”, in The New Yorker‎[2], →ISSN:
      He’d begun the day’s broadcast by rattling off a standard opening monologue: “Folks, we’re live and alive, and I hope all the boys, girls, and enbies”—nonbinary people—“are having a fantastic one.” To anyone listening for shibboleths, this would have pigeonholed him as a progressive.
    • 2026 May 22, Simon Montlake, “The GOP has been a pro-Israel party for decades. Is that changing”, in The Christian Science Monitor, Boston, Massachusetts: Christian Science Publishing Society, →ISSN, →OCLC:
      And many [younger conservatives] see reflexive solidarity with Israel as a shibboleth that belongs in the past, to be replaced by a more isolationalist foreign policy.
      (Can we archive this URL?)

Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ “shibboleth, noun.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Further reading

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