Yiddish

[ yid-ish ]

noun
  1. a Germanic language of Ashkenazi Jews, based on Middle High German dialects with an admixture of vocabulary from Hebrew, Aramaic, the Slavic languages, and Old French and Old Italian, written in Hebrew letters, and spoken mainly in eastern and central Europe and by Jewish emigrants from these regions and their descendants.

adjective
  1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Yiddish.

Origin of Yiddish

1
First recorded in 1885–90; from Yiddish yidish; see yid, -ish1

Words Nearby Yiddish

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How to use Yiddish in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for Yiddish

Yiddish

/ (ˈjɪdɪʃ) /


noun
  1. a language spoken as a vernacular by Jews in Europe and elsewhere by Jewish emigrants, usually written in the Hebrew alphabet. Historically, it is a dialect of High German with an admixture of words of Hebrew, Romance, and Slavonic origin, developed in central and E Europe during the Middle Ages

adjective
  1. in or relating to this language

Origin of Yiddish

1
C19: from German jüdisch, from Jude Jew

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