Trefah

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Describing food that is forbidden or ritually unfit to eat under Jewish dietary law, and therefore not kosher
2. Of meat or other food that does not meet the requirements of kashrut and may not be eaten by observant Jews
3. Unacceptable as food according to Jewish religious law, such as an animal that was not slaughtered or prepared properly

Etymology: Hebrew "trefah" (טְרֵפָה) originally meant an animal torn by a predator, which Jewish dietary law declared unfit to eat. The word derives from a verb meaning "to tear," and it later came to mean anything ritually forbidden under the kashrut rules, whether food, utensils, or even the wider sense of something not kosher. Its path into English ran through Yiddish, where the form was "treyf," and that spelling is the more common one in English today. The Yiddish form carried the word's core sense of impurity into everyday speech, so that a non-kosher dish or an unsuitable practice could be called "treyf" in a casual, sometimes jocular way. English speakers, especially in communities shaped by Yiddish, adopted the term with the same range of meanings, from strict ritual prohibition to a broader sense of something dubious or improper. The alternative spelling "trefah" keeps closer to the Hebrew.

Synonyms: treif, treyf, unkosher, nonkosher

Antonyms: kosher