shibboleth
pronunciation
How to pronounce shibboleth in British English:
UK [ˈʃɪbəleθ]
How to pronounce shibboleth in American English:
US [ˈʃɪbəlɪθ, -ˌlɛθ]
-
- Noun:
- a favorite saying of a sect or political group
- a manner of speaking that is distinctive of a particular group of people
Word Origin
- shibboleth
- shibboleth: [14] Hebrew shibbōleth meant ‘stream’. According to the Bible, the Gileadites used it as a password, for they knew their enemies the Ephraimites could not pronounce the sh properly (‘And it was so, that when those Ephraimites which were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, Art thou an Ephraimite? If he said, Nay, then they said unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right’, Judges 12:5–6).In 17th-century English it came to be applied generically to any word used as a test of pronunciation, particularly as a sign of belonging to a group, and hence by extension to any catchword or slogan adopted by a group, and this eventually evolved into the modern sense ‘outmoded slogan, practice, etc still adhered to’.
- shibboleth (n.)
- late 14c., the Hebrew word shibboleth, meaning "flood, stream," also "ear of corn;" in Judges xii:4-6. It was the password used by the Gileadites to distinguish their own men from fleeing Ephraimites, because Ephraimites could not pronounce the -sh- sound. Hence the figurative sense of "watchword" (first recorded 1630s), which evolved by 1862 to "outmoded slogan still adhered to." A similar test-word was cicera "chick pease," used by the Italians to identify the French (who could not pronounce it correctly) during the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers (1282).
Example
- 1. Maritime nations still respond automatically to the shibboleth of the " freedom of the seas . "
- 2. Notice that in each case the objection is based on a shibboleth .
- 3. When you start using the cultural shibboleth of the ceiling as an excuse , you are achieving nothing and will continue to do just that .
- 4. They would say to him , then say , shibboleth .
- 5. Even their commitment to abolishing university tuition fees , a shibboleth in a party with a large student following , may be wavering .