yahrzeit
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Yiddish יאָרצײַט (yortsayt). Cognate to German Jahreszeit (“season”), which heavily influenced the spelling and pronunciation once the word was borrowed into English.
Pronunciation
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- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "RP" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈjɑː.tsaɪt/
Noun
yahrzeit (plural yahrzeits)
- (Judaism) The anniversary of a person's death, often of a parent's.
- 1892 February, “The Jews in New York--II.”, in The Century Magazine[1], volume 43, number 4, page 516:
- "Yahrzeit" (year's time) is the anniversary of the parent's death.
- 1930 August 1, Leon Spitz, “Tisha b'Ab-The Yahrzeit of Every Jew”, in The Canadian Jewish Chronicle[2], page 1:
- Sad to say, the Yahrzeit of every-Jew is fading away from the memory of the average Jew in America.
- 2002 September 2, Leon Wieseltier, “A Year Later”, in The New Republic[3]:
- The yahrzeit is here, and the least lachrymose country on earth is devising its rituals of commemoration.
- 2016 August 10, Irwin Cohen, “Hank Greenberg’s 30th Yahrzeit”, in The Jewish Press[4]:
- Let’s remember Hank Greenberg’s yahrzeit, the 30th of Av, which falls this year on Sept. 3.