Shibboleth

For other uses, see Shibboleth (disambiguation).
A New Orleans resident challenges out-of-towners who had come to protest against the 2017 removal of the Robert E. Lee Monument. The out-of-towners' inability to pronounce "Tchoupitoulas Street" according to the local fashion would be a shibboleth marking them as outsiders.

A shibboleth (/ˈʃɪbəlɛθ, -ɪθ/ ⓘ;[1][2] Biblical Hebrew: שִׁבֹּלֶת, romanized: šībbōleṯ) is any custom or tradition, usually a choice of phrasing or single word, that distinguishes one group of people from another.[3][2][4] Shibboleths have been used throughout history in many societies as passwords, ways of self-identification, signals of loyalty and affinity, ways of maintaining traditional segregation, or protection from real or perceived threats.

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2003) [1917], Roach, Peter; Hartmann, James; Setter, Jane (eds.), English Pronouncing Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 485, ISBN 3-12-539683-2
  2. ^ a b "shibboleth". Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary. Merriam-Webster.
  3. ^ Allen, R. E.; Fowler, H. W.; Fowler, F. G. (1990). The Concise Oxford dictionary of current English (8th ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 1117. ISBN 978-0-19-861200-1 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ "SHIBBOLETH definition and meaning". Collins English Dictionary. Retrieved 9 September 2024.