yarmulke

English

WOTD – 23 September 2008

Yarmulkes

Alternative forms

• yarmalka, yarmalke, yarmelka, yarmelke, yarmulka, yamacha, yermulke (rhotic variants)
• yamaka, yamalka, yamalke, yamelka, yamelke, yamilke, yamuka, yamulka, yamulke (non-rhotic variants)

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish יאַרמלקע (yarmlke), from Polish jarmułka (“skullcap”), from Turkic; compare Turkish yağmurluk (“rain apparel”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈjɑːməlkə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈjɑ(ɹ)mə(l)kə/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

yarmulke (plural yarmulkes)

2. (Judaism) A skullcap worn by religious Jewish males (especially during prayer). [from 1903]

   Synonyms: kippah, kappel, skullcap

   • 1991 October 1, Richard Goldstein, “The New Anti-Semitism: A Geshrei”, in Village Voice‎^[1], archived from the original on 22 January 2020, page 33:

     And I always feel uncomfortable dur­ing the High Holy Days watching people in yarmulkes rushing through the streets, knowing they’ll be swaying and moaning something ancient and indecipherable, even to me.

   • 2007 April 29, Patricia Cohen, “The Frozen Dozen”, in The New York Times‎^[2], archived from the original on 13 December 2023:

     But once Dr. Levenson, who works for the Indian Health Service and wears a colorful tapestry yarmulke, has alerted the tiny network, it almost seems as if we have stepped into Yiddishland.

   • 2019 May 28, Jack Guy and Antonia Mortensen, “Germans urged to wear Jewish skullcap ahead of anti-Israel protests”, in CNN‎^[3]:

     “I call on all citizens of Berlin and across Germany to wear the yarmulke (as the skullcap is known in Yiddish) next Saturday if there are new, intolerable attacks targeting Israel and Jews on the occasion of Al-Quds Day in Berlin,” said Felix Klein in a statement.

Translations

skullcap worn by religious Jewish males

• Afrikaans: jarmoelka, kippa, skedelmus
• Arabic: قُبَّة f (qubba), كِبَّة f (kibba)
• Belarusian: ярмо́лка f (jarmólka)
• Bulgarian: ермо́лка f (ermólka)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 卡巴 (kǎbā)

• Czech: kipa f, jarmulka f
• Esperanto: kipao
• Finnish: kipa (fi)
• French: kippa (fr) f
• German: Jarmulke (de) f
• Greek: σκούφος (el) m (skoúfos)
• Hebrew: כִּפָּה (he) f (kipá)
• Hungarian: kipa (hu), jarmulke
• Indonesian: kippah
• Italian: kippah (it) f
• Japanese: キッパー (kippā), キッパ (kippa), ヤムルカ (yamuruka)
• Korean: 키파 (kipa), 야물커 (yamulkeo)
• Macedonian: јармулка f (jarmulka)
• Malay: kippah
• Persian: کیپا (fa) (kipâ), یاماکا (yâmâkâ)
• Polish: jarmułka (pl) f
• Portuguese: quipá (pt) m or f
• Russian: ермо́лка (ru) f (jermólka), кипа́ (ru) f (kipá)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: јарму̀лка f

  Latin: jarmùlka (sh) f

• Slovak: kipa f, jarmulka f
• Slovene: jarmulka f
• Spanish: kipá (es) f
• Swedish: kippa (sv) c
• Tagalog: kipa
• Turkish: kipa (tr), kippa (tr), yarmulke
• Ukrainian: ярму́лка (uk) f (jarmúlka)
• Yiddish: יאַרמלקע f (yarmlke)

See also

• small hat

References

• Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary 10th Edition (1997)
  
• “yarmulke”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.