Kyke

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. An offensive ethnic slur used as a derogatory term for a Jewish person, considered highly insulting and antisemitic
2. A deeply hurtful antisemitic epithet directed at Jews, recognized as a racist insult rather than a neutral term
3. A contemptuous racial slur aimed at people of Jewish heritage, used to demean and express hatred toward them

Etymology: The most widely cited explanation traces this slur to a circle. Greek "kuklos" meant circle or wheel, and it reached Yiddish as "kaykl," also meaning circle. A popular account holds that early twentieth-century Jewish immigrants to the United States, many unable to write English, signed official papers with a circle instead of an X, to avoid a mark that resembled a Christian cross. Mockers then turned the circle into a label. This is a theory rather than a documented fact. Other proposals are less certain. One links the term to "Ikey-Kikey," an American reduplication of "ikey," a British pejorative for Jews drawn from the common name Isaac. Another connects it to Scots "keek," meaning to peek, which New York garment workers used for spies who copied rival designs. Eastern European Jews were prominent in that trade, and the term seems to have begun as a label that established German Jews applied to newcomers before spreading to Jews generally. The spelling with a "y" is a rare variant.