kibitz
pronunciation
How to pronounce kibitz in British English: UK ['kɪbɪts]
How to pronounce kibitz in American English: US ['kɪbɪts]
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- Verb:
- make unwanted and intrusive comments
Word Origin
- kibitz (v.)
- 1927, from Yiddish kibitsen "to offer gratuitous advice as an outsider," from German kiebitzen "to look on at cards, to kibitz," originally in thieves' cant "to visit," from Kiebitz, name of a shore bird (European pewit, lapwing) with a folk reputation as a meddler, from Middle High German gibitz "pewit," imitative of its cry. Young lapwings are proverbially precocious and active, and were said to run around with half-shells still on their heads soon after hatching.