Words Which Flip from Bad to Good and Vice Versa

I had one of those “only in the universe of social media” events today, and I don’t mean that in a good way–which is sort of the theme of this post! I belong to a group on Facebook which focuses on the Yiddish language and today my feed included a post advising people not to use the word “Shiksa” (or “Shiktza”) as it should always be regarded as a pejorative. And for Yiddish, this is probably good advice. For English-speakers, the story is much more complicated. I made a brief reply with the essence of the argument, and to my surprise, my reply was instantly declined because I had violated community standards. Since all the language I used was contained in the post itself, I was astonished by this. But it has the positive outcome, I think, that it inspired me to write this post.

The origin of the word shiktsa lies in Biblical Hebrew sheketz, and analogues in Assyrian and Aramaic, where the root means detestable or disgusting, often applied to items forbidden to eat. It was not a particularly common word in Biblical Hebrew, but in Yiddish, the word was applied more generally. The term shegetz was used for non-Jewish men, and shiksa for non-Jewish (gentile) women. 

Things got complicated in America. The comedian Lenny Bruce used the term “Shiksa goddess” to refer to his wife, Honey Harlow, who had a career as a stripper. The term entered into common parlance, and many gentile women chose to regard it as a compliment. 

In other words, the term shiksa, in the minds of many English-speaking people, flipped from a pejorative to a complimentary term–especially when using the Lenny Bruce terminology.

As it turns out, this is not a rare feature of many languages. In English, it is actually common. Consider the word awe which is usually a positive, as in “I saw the Northern Lights last night and felt a sense of awe.” But no one today would use the word awful to convey a positive! Another interesting example is the word sanction which can mean either to allow something or to prohibit it. In view of a pair of well-performing movies, think about the multiple uses of the word wicked.

This phenomenon is well-attested in Hebrew. The biblical Hebrew root kof.lamed.samekh means “to mock” or “to deride.” Fast forward a few centuries, and that same root means, “to beautify,” or “to praise.” The most likely explanation for the switch is that Greek was one of the common languages of the Jews in the era of the Mishnah, and kalos is a common Greek adjective meaning, “beautiful.” Possibly the most startling example of this phenomenon in Hebrew is the use of bet.resh.kaf which usually means, “to bless,” but in Job clearly means, “to curse”–as in Job’s wife command to her husband, “Curse God and die” (barekh elohim vamet!) Job 2:9. Another startling example is the root kof.dalet.shin which normally implies some aspect of holiness, but in one noun form, kedeshah, means “prostitute.” Although it’s impossible to be sure, scholars often suggest that the connection is to the phenomenon of temple prostitutes. 

Here’s a bit of irony. The label “Orthodox” was originally intended as an insult. But Orthodox Jews turned that around by wearing it as a badge of honor. 

Before I go, let me make clear that one has to be careful with many of these words. For Yiddish-speakers, the term “shiksa” is indeed not only a pejorative, but an offensive word to be avoided. An American woman who might enjoy using the Lenny Bruce expression to describe herself is exercising a privilege which is something akin to a person of color referring to themself or their friends using the “n-word.” 

Let me leave you with this. The English word fun originally meant “to cheat” or “to perpetrate a hoax.” Have we had some fun here?