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chutzpah

  (KHʊt'spə, hʊt'-) pronunciation
also hutz·pah n.

Utter nerve; effrontery: “has the chutzpah to claim a lock on God and morality” (New York Times).

[Yiddish khutspe, from Mishnaic Hebrew ḥuṣpâ, from ḥāṣap, to be insolent.]


 
 
Word Overheard: chutzpah

Like all Yiddish words that have entered the English lexicon, chutzpah is difficult to translate yet wonderfully useful. In this case, Hillary and Bill Clinton were accused of having chutzpah (nerve, audacity) after they criticized President Bush for commuting Scooter Libby's prison sentence.

"'I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah but this is a gigantic case of it,' presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.... Bill Clinton is from the state of Arkansas. Chutzpah is the Yiddish word for brashness.... In the closing hours of his presidency, Clinton pardoned 140 people, including fugitive financier Marc Rich."

Link: Bush spokesman says Clintons have nerve for criticizing Bush on commuting former aide's prison term. - International Herald Tribune

Posted July 9, 2007.

 

Unmitigated gall, generally unacceptable brazen behavior. In some types of business, it is regarded as an asset: a positive quality of heroic audacity or guts.

 
Wikipedia: chutzpah
For the rap group, see Chutzpah (group). Chutzpah! is also a book by Alan Dershowitz.

Chutzpah is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. The word derives from the Hebrew word ḥuṣpâ (חֻצְפָּה), meaning "insolence," "audacity," and "impertinence". The modern English usage of the word has taken on a wider spectrum of meaning, however, having been popularized through vernacular use, film, literature, and television.

Chutzpah is also similar in meaning to the term "bravura" in music, and the former may be a better term to describe certain forms of musical audacity. This is especially the case as dance, jazz, and jazz dance in particular foster a competitive spirit that no longer exists in classical music to the extent that it once did. Chutzpah could describe a banality in which classical music is disrupted or turned into a competition or duel, while on the other hand a stubborn classical temperament could be viewed as equally audacious, as well as difficult and risky.

In Hebrew, chutzpah is used indignantly, to describe someone who has over-stepped the boundaries of accepted behavior with no shame. But in Yiddish and English, chutzpah has developed ambivalent and even positive connotations. Chutzpah can be used to express admiration for non-conformist but gutsy audacity. One common English adaptation of "chutzpah" is "hoodspa," which has a mostly positive connotation. Leo Rosten in The Joys of Yiddish defines chutzpah as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to." In this sense, chutzpah expresses both strong disapproval and a grudging admiration.

One example given of the ultimate of chutzpah is: "A boy, having just been convicted of murdering his parents, begs the judge for leniency because he is an orphan."[1]

Related terms in Hebrew are khatsuf (חצוף) and khatsufah (חצופֿה), which means an "impudent man" and an "impudent woman," respectively.

Alan Dershowitz entitled his bestselling book of essays Chutzpah. Norman Finkelstein titled his book responding to Dershowitz's claims on Israel Beyond Chutzpah. [2]

Leo Stoller controversially claims to own a trademark on the word. [3]

Judge Alex Kozinski and Eugene Volokh in an article entitled Lawsuit Shmawsuit, note the rise in use of Yiddish words in legal opinion. They note that chutzpah has been used 231 times in legal opinions, with all but eleven of those after 1980.[1]

In the News

See also

References

  1. ^ a b
  2. ^ Wiener, Jon. "Giving Chutzpah New Meaning", The Nation, 2005-07-11. Retrieved on 2007-06-24. 
  3. ^ Moynihan, Colin. "He Says He Owns the Word 'Stealth' (Actually, He Claims 'Chutzpah,' Too)", The New York Times, 2005-07-04. Retrieved on 2007-06-24. “Through Rentamark, Mr. Stoller offers licensing agreements for other words he says he owns and controls, such as bootlegger, hoax and chutzpah, and sells t-shirts and other merchandise through what the Web site calls its "stealth mall."” 
  4. ^ Schmitt, Richard B., James Gerstenzang. "Bush aide derides Clinton 'chutzpah' on Libby criticism", Los Angeles Times, 2007-07-06. Retrieved on 2007-07-06. (English) “The White House challenged criticism from the Clintons directed at President Bush for commuting the prison sentence Monday of former vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby.” 

 
Translations: Translations for: Chutzpah

Dansk (Danish)
n. - frejdighed grænsende til frækhed

Nederlands (Dutch)
gotspe

Français (French)
n. - toupet, culot

Deutsch (German)
n. - (ugs.) Chuzpe, Frechheit

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ξεδιαντροπιά, αυθάδεια

Italiano (Italian)
faccia tosta, sfacciataggine, impudenza

Português (Portuguese)
n. - bravura (f) (gír.)

Русский (Russian)
наглость

Español (Spanish)
n. - caradura

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - fräckhet

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
厚脸皮, 放肆无礼

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 厚臉皮, 放肆無禮

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 뻔뻔스러움

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - あつかましさ

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) جرأة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חוצפה‬


 
 

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Word Overheard. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Business Dictionary. Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2000 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Chutzpah" Read more
Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved.  Read more

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