kike

See also: Kike and kiké

English

Etymology

Thought to be from Yiddish קײַקל (kaykl, “circle”). In the early 20th century, non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X. The latter symbol was associated by these Jews with the Christian cross, a symbol that represented to them millennia of persecution.[1] This is the dominant etymological theory, but there are others, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase ‘Ikey-Kikey’, an American-origin reduplication of Ikey, British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the name Isaac.[2]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /kaɪk/
    • Audio (Southern England)(file)
  • Rhymes: -aɪk

Noun

kike (plural kikes)

  1. (US, offensive, ethnic slur, religious slur) A Jew.
    Synonyms: (not always pejorative) yid, heeb, Hymie, sheeny, shylock
    • 1922, Sinclair Lewis, “24”, in Babbitt:
      "Now you quit kidding me! What's the nice little name?" "Oh, it ain't so darn nice. I guess it's kind of kike. But my folks ain't kikes. My papa's papa was a nobleman in Poland, and there was a gentleman in here one day, he was kind of a count or something--"
  2. (US, offensive) A miser; a contemptible, stingy person, particularly a well-endowed one.
    Synonym: see Thesaurus:miser
    That greedy kike would not give me any money when I was starving and needed food.

Verb

kike (third-person singular simple present kikes, present participle kiking, simple past and past participle kiked)

  1. (transitive, offensive, uncommon) To render something more Jewish.
  2. (transitive, offensive, uncommon) To haggle or swindle in order to obtain a better deal from.

Derived terms

Translations
contemptible, stingy person — see miser

References
  1. Rosten, Leo (1968) The Joys of Yiddish, New York: Pocket Books Cited in Kim Pearson (2003) “kike”, in kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu‎, (A rare usage is "kyke".), archived from the original on 2 June 2008
  2. Kim Pearson (2003) “kike”, in kpearson.faculty.tcnj.edu‎, (A rare usage is "kyke".), archived from the original on 2 June 2008

Further reading

Anagrams

Japanese

Romanization

kike

  1. Rōmaji transcription of きけ

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle Low German kîken. Related to Swedish kika.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /çiːke/, [çiːkə]

Verb

kike (imperative kik, present tense kiker, past tense keik or kek, past participle kiket, present participle kikende)

  1. to look
  2. to glance
  3. to peek, peep
  4. to peer
  5. to gaze

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle Low German kiken.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /²çiːkə/

Verb

kike (present tense kik or kikar, past tense keik or kika, supine kike, past participle kiken or kika, present participle kikande, imperative kik)

  1. to look
  2. to glance
  3. to peek,
  4. to peer
  5. to gaze

References

“kike” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swahili

Pronunciation
  • Audio (Kenya)(file)

Adjective

-a kike (invariable)

  1. feminine, female
    Antonym: -a kiume
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