How did the Hebrew/Yiddish word 'chutzpah' come to mean brazen or cheeky when the Arabic root word means 'sound judgement'? Is this a case of sarcasm taking on a larger life?
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Last updated 24 fevereiro 2025
Answer: Good question. The Yiddish chutzpah חוצפה comes from Mishnaic Hebrew; the American Heritage Dictionary traces it further to the Central Semitic root ḥṣp חצפ "to be insolent". This implies that it is the Arabic ḥaṣāfah حصافة that is the result of semantic shift (Arabic is a Central Semitic
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How did the Hebrew/Yiddish word 'chutzpah' come to mean brazen or cheeky when the Arabic root word means 'sound judgement'? Is this a case of sarcasm taking on a larger life?
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How did the Hebrew/Yiddish word 'chutzpah' come to mean brazen or cheeky when the Arabic root word means 'sound judgement'? Is this a case of sarcasm taking on a larger life?
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How did the Hebrew/Yiddish word 'chutzpah' come to mean brazen or cheeky when the Arabic root word means 'sound judgement'? Is this a case of sarcasm taking on a larger life?