15 English words you probably didn't know came from Hebrew and Yiddish

From cider to jacket...

Reading the Torah.
(Image credit: iStock/CrossEyedPhotography)

I'm sure you can think of words that come from Hebrew or Yiddish — religious words like rabbi and torah, food words like bagel and latke, cultural words like chutzpah and verklempt. But there's a very good chance that, without even knowing it, you regularly use other words that come from them, too.

It shouldn't be too surprising that English was influenced by Hebrew — it's thanks to the Bible. Early translators took many words straight from Hebrew because European languages didn't have a good equivalent (or the translators weren't completely sure what the word referred to). And many of our personal names are taken from the Bible, too, sometimes greatly changed (like James).

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James Harbeck

James Harbeck is a professional word taster and sentence sommelier (an editor trained in linguistics). He is the author of the blog Sesquiotica and the book Songs of Love and Grammar.