kosher

Etymology

It is borrowed from Yiddish כּשר (kosher, “conforming to Jewish dietary laws; pious”) and partly directly borrowed from Biblical Hebrew כָּשֵׁר (kāšēr, “fitting, suitable, proper”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} which in post-biblical Hebrew also meant conforming to the dietary laws,^[2] from a verb meaning to be fitting or proper.^[2][5][3][7] Some dictionaries derive the English word from Hebrew alone.^{[8][9][10][11]} The Yiddish form reflects the Ashkenazic pronunciation of the Hebrew word,^[2][3] and the spelling koscher follows German koscher.^[2] Klein relates the Hebrew adjective to the noun for ritual fitness behind kashrut.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of food and wine, fit to be eaten or drunk under the Jewish dietary laws: 1791, in E. Nairne's Poems.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster date the word to 1851,^[4][6] and Etymonline to 1850, noting the early spellings kasher and coshar.^[5]

Semantic evolution

From food the word spread to places where food is prepared, sold or eaten (1855), then to anything satisfying Jewish religious law (1873) and to pious people who keep the dietary laws (1890).^[2] The noun, kosher food or a shop selling it, is recorded from 1833, and the phrase to keep kosher from 1888.^[2][6] The verb, to make food or utensils kosher, comes partly from the corresponding Yiddish verb^[2][4] and is recorded from 1856.^[2] The colloquial sense "legitimate, genuine, proper" appears in Zangwill's Children of the Ghetto in 1892,^[2] and Green's Dictionary of Slang finds "honest, legitimate" in British slang in 1890;^[12] Barnhart and Etymonline date it to 1896, but Barnhart notes that German student slang had used the word in this extended way since 1737.^[4][5] The Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins likewise traces the slang sense to the 1880s.^[13] In British slang to kosher something could also mean to smuggle it, recorded in 1962.^[12]

Timeline

• 1791 – of food and wine, fit under Jewish dietary law.^[2]
• 1833 – noun, kosher food.^[2]
• 1855 – of a place where food is prepared or eaten.^[2]
• 1856 – verb, to make food kosher.^[2]
• 1873 – satisfying Jewish religious law in general.^[2]
• 1888 – to keep kosher.^[2]
• 1890 – of a person, observing the dietary laws.^[2] Slang, honest, legitimate.^[12]
• 1892 – colloquial, legitimate, correct, genuine.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (Judaism) Of food, fit to be eaten under Jewish law, or prepared according to it: kosher meat.^[14][6][2]
2. Selling, serving or using such food: a kosher bakery.^[6][2]
3. Observing the Jewish dietary laws.^[2][6]
4. (informal) Genuine, legitimate or proper: The deal sounded too good to be kosher.^[14][6][2]

Noun

1. keep kosher: to observe the Jewish dietary laws.^[6][2]

Verb

1. To make food or a kitchen utensil fit for use under Jewish law.^[2][4]

Word family

• nonkosher
• unkosher
• kosher-style

Related words

• kasher
• kashrut

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
11. ^ Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
14. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins