mitzvah

Etymology

It is borrowed from Biblical Hebrew מִצְוָה (miṣwāh, “command, commandment”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} from a Hebrew verb meaning to command or order.^[2][3][7][8] In post-biblical Hebrew the noun also meant a good deed or a ceremonial duty.^[2] Klein relates the Hebrew verb to an Arabic verb meaning to bind or unite, and to others meaning to enjoin, charge or bequeath.^[8][7] The same Hebrew noun is the second part of bar mitzvah and bat mitzvah.^[2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

A precept or commandment; a religious duty: the OED's first record of the English word is from 1723, in H. Rowlands's Mona Antiqua Restaurata,^[2] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged also dates it to 1723.^[4] Etymonline, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford date it to the mid 17th century;^[7][6][5] the OED notes that transliterations of the Hebrew plural, Mizuoth, occur in English texts from 1650, in E. Chilmead's translation of L. Modena's history of Jewish rites.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In English the word first named the commandments of Jewish law, in the plural the whole body of them.^[2] From the 19th century it also took over the post-biblical Hebrew sense of a good deed, an act of kindness that is not commanded by any one precept but is in the spirit of the law.^[2][4] Among Sephardic Jews it was used from 1827 for the ceremonial honours of the synagogue service that are shared out among members of the congregation.^[2] The OED's 1976 Supplement recorded a less naturalized pronunciation with the stress on the last syllable.^[2]

Timeline

• 1723 – a precept or commandment; a religious duty.^[2][4]
• 1827 – among Sephardic Jews, a ceremonial duty in the synagogue service.^[2]
• 1883 – a good deed, an act of kindness.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Judaism) A commandment of the Bible or of the rabbis; in the plural, the commandments of Jewish law as a whole.^[4][9][2]
2. A good or meritorious deed; an act of kindness: Visiting the sick neighbour was a real mitzvah.^[4][9][2]
3. Among Sephardic Jews, one of the ceremonial duties of the synagogue service given to a member of the congregation.^[2]

Related words

• bar mitzvah
• bat mitzvah

Usage notes

The plural is mitzvoth or mitzvot, as in Hebrew, or the English mitzvahs.^[4][9]

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 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins