goy

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.
See also: Goy, göy, gøy, and goþ

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish גוי (goy, gentile), from Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, nation).

Compare Exodus 19:6: ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש (mamlekhet kohanim wegoy qadosh, [] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation) (referring to the Jewish people). The word goy technically refers not to non-Jews, but rather to a nation per se; the Jews are said to constitute a “goy”. But through common usage – namely referring to "the [other non-Jewish] nations" – the word came to colloquially refer to non-Jews.

Pronunciation

Noun

goy (plural goyim or goys or goyem)

  1. (sometimes offensive) A non-Jew, a gentile.
    Synonyms: gentile, non-Jew, (pejorative) akum, (pejorative) shegetz, (pejorative) shkotz
    Hyponym: (female) shiksa
    • 1988, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron:
      I don’t think that marriage is working, but I’m not going to be stupid about it and say she shouldn’t have married a goy.

Usage notes

  • This noun is sometimes taken to be offensive; speakers wishing to avoid offense may prefer the term gentile (sometimes capitalized as Gentile) or simply non-Jew.
  • The plural goyim is occasionally misinterpreted as a singular form by people unfamiliar with Hebrew, yielding redundant plural forms such as goyims.

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

Anguthimri

Noun

goy

  1. (Mpakwithi) buck wallaby

References

  • Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 186

Ladino

Etymology

From Hebrew גוי.

Noun

goy m (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling גוי, plural goyim, feminine goya)

  1. goy, gentile, non-Jew

Further reading

  • Aitor García Moreno, editor (2013–), “goy, yá”, in Diccionario Histórico Judeoespañol (in Spanish), CSIC
  • Aitor García Moreno, editor (2013–), “goyim”, in Diccionario Histórico Judeoespañol (in Spanish), CSIC

Portuguese

Etymology 1

Noun

goy m or f by sense (plural goys)

  1. Alternative spelling of gói

Etymology 2

Possibly by influence from English guy, by association with gay.

Noun

goy m (plural goys)

  1. a homosexual male who does not assume himself as such; a closeted gay

References

  • "Goy" in Dicionário Informal.

Salar

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *koń. Compare to Turkish koyun, Kazakh қой (qoi), Southern Altai кой (koy), Azerbaijani qoyun, etc.

Pronunciation

  • (Chahandusi, Qingshui, Hanbahe, Baizhuang, Mengda, Ejia, Daowei, Xunhua, Qinghai, Ili, Yining, Xinjiang) IPA(key): [qoj]
  • (Jiezi, Gaizi, Xunhua, Qinghai) IPA(key): [koj]

Noun

goy (3rd person possessive goyı, plural goylar)

  1. sheep

References

  • Tenishev, Edhem (1976) “qoi”, in Stroj salárskovo jazyká [Grammar of Salar], Moscow, pages 386, 463
  • 马伟 (Ma Wei), 朝克 (Chao Ke) (2016) “qoy”, in 濒危语言——撒拉语研究 [Endangered Languages ​​- Salar Language Studies], 青海 (Qinghai): 国家社会科学基金项目 (National Social Science Foundation Project), page 263
  • Ma, Chengjun, Han, Lianye, Ma, Weisheng (December 2010) “qoy”, in 米娜瓦尔 艾比布拉 (Minavar Abibra), editor, 撒维汉词典 (Sāwéihàncídiǎn) [Salar-Uyghur-Chinese dictionary] (in Chinese), 1st edition, Beijing, →ISBN, page 234
  • 林莲云 [Lin Lianyun] (1985) “goy”, in 撒拉语简志 [A Brief History of Salar]‎[1], Beijing: 民族出版社: 琴書店, →OCLC, page 4
  • Yakup, Abdurishid (2002) “goy”, in An Ili Salar Vocabulary: Introduction and a Provisional Salar-English Lexicon[2], Tokyo: University of Tokyo, →ISBN, page 107

Spanish

Spanish Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia es

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish גוי (goy, gentile), from Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, nation).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈɡoi/ [ˈɡoi̯]
  • Rhymes: -oi
  • Syllabification: goy

Noun

goy m or f by sense (plural goyim)

  1. (sometimes offensive) goy
    Synonym: gentil