goy
English
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)
- (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
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Anagrams
Anguthimri
Noun
goy
References
- Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 186
Ladino
Etymology
Noun
goy m (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling גוי, plural goyim, feminine goya)
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)
- Alternative spelling of gói
Etymology 2
Possibly by influence from English guy, by association with gay.
Noun
goy m (plural goys)
- 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)
Related terms
- goşgur (“ram”)
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
Etymology
Borrowed from Yiddish גוי (goy, “gentile”), from Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, “nation”).
Pronunciation
Noun
goy m or f by sense (plural goyim)
- English terms borrowed from Yiddish
- English terms derived from Yiddish
- English terms derived from Hebrew
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio pronunciation
- Rhymes:English/ɔɪ
- Rhymes:English/ɔɪ/1 syllable
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English nouns with irregular plurals
- English offensive terms
- English terms with quotations
- en:Judaism
- English three-letter words
- Anguthimri lemmas
- Anguthimri nouns
- Ladino terms borrowed from Hebrew
- Ladino terms derived from Hebrew
- Ladino lemmas
- Ladino nouns
- Ladino nouns in Latin script
- Ladino masculine nouns
- Portuguese lemmas
- Portuguese nouns
- Portuguese countable nouns
- Portuguese terms spelled with Y
- Portuguese masculine nouns
- Portuguese feminine nouns
- Portuguese nouns with multiple genders
- Portuguese masculine and feminine nouns by sense
- Salar terms inherited from Proto-Turkic
- Salar terms derived from Proto-Turkic
- Salar terms with IPA pronunciation
- Salar lemmas
- Salar nouns
- Spanish terms borrowed from Yiddish
- Spanish terms derived from Yiddish
- Spanish terms derived from Hebrew
- Spanish 1-syllable words
- Spanish terms with IPA pronunciation
- Rhymes:Spanish/oi
- Rhymes:Spanish/oi/1 syllable
- Spanish lemmas
- Spanish nouns
- Spanish countable nouns
- Spanish masculine nouns
- Spanish feminine nouns
- Spanish nouns with multiple genders
- Spanish masculine and feminine nouns by sense
- Spanish offensive terms