chutzpah
American Heritage Dictionary:
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chutz·pah
also hutz·pah (KHʊt'spə, hʊt'-) 
n.
Utter nerve; effrontery: "has the chutzpah to claim a lock on God and morality" (New York Times).
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 by Answers.com:
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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."
Posted July 9, 2007.
See our Word Overheard blog to see interesting uses of strange words. 
Barron's Business Dictionary:
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chutzpah
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.
In some types of business, it is regarded as an asset: a positive quality of heroic audacity or guts.
| Churning, Chose in Action, Chinese Wall | |
| Cif (Cost, Insurance, and Freight), Cipher, Circuit |
Roget's Thesaurus:
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chutzpah
also hutzpah
noun
- The state or quality of being impudent or arrogantly self-confident: assumption, audaciousness, audacity, boldness, brashness, brazenness, cheek, cheekiness, discourtesy, disrespect, effrontery, face, familiarity, forwardness, gall, impertinence, impudence, impudency, incivility, insolence, nerve, nerviness, overconfidence, pertness, presumptuousness, pushiness, rudeness, sassiness, sauciness. Informal brass, crust, sauce, uppishness, uppityness. See attitude/good attitude/bad attitude/neutral attitude, courtesy/discourtesy.
Word Tutor:
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hutzpah
IN BRIEF: n. - (Yiddish) unbelievable gall.
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Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang:
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chutzpah
Random House Word Menu:
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categories related to 'chutzpah'
- Yiddish Borrowings - chutzpah: gall, nerve, or brashness
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Chutzpah
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Look up chutzpah in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
For other uses, see Chutzpah (disambiguation).
Chutzpah (pron.: /ˈhʊtspə/ or /ˈxʊtspə/[1][2]) is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. The Yiddish word derives from the Hebrew word ḥutspâ (חֻצְפָּה), meaning "insolence" or "audacity". The modern English usage of the word has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in film, literature, and television. The word is sometimes interpreted -- particularly in business parlance -- as meaning the amount of courage, mettle or ardor that an individual has. However in more traditional usage, chutzpah is invariably negative.
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Contents
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Etymology
In Hebrew, chutzpah is used indignantly, to describe someone who has overstepped the boundaries of accepted behavior. In traditional usage, the word expresses a strong sense of disgust, condemnation and outrage.
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 condemnation. In the same work, Rosten also defined the term as "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan." This mercy appeal is the best allusion to the depth meaning of 'chutzpah', for which there is no single word or even phrase in English, nor any other language ... as is noted.
All that can really be added is that 'chutzpah' amounts to a total denial of personal responsibility, that renders others speechless and incredulous ... one cannot quite believe that another person totally lacks common human traits like remorse, regret, guilt, sympathy and insight. The implication is at least some degree of psychopathy in the subject, as well as the awestruck amazement of the observer at the display.
The cognate of chutzpah in Classical Arabic, ḥaṣāfah (حصافة), does not mean "impudence" or "cheekiness" or anything similar, but rather "sound judgment."[3]
Contemporary Usage
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 American legal opinions, 220 of those after 1980.[4]
See also
References
- ^ Dictionary Reference: chutzpah
- ^ The Free Dictionary: chutzpah
- ^ Wehr, Hans (1994) [1979]. J. Milton Cowan. ed. Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic. Urbana, Illinois: Spoken Language Services, Inc.. ISBN 0-87950-003-4.
- ^ Kozinski, Alex; Eugene Volokh (1993). "Lawsuit Shmawsuit". Yale Law Journal (The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc.) 103 (2): 463. doi:10.2307/797101. JSTOR 797101. http://www.law.ucla.edu/volokh/yiddish.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
External links
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Look up chutzpah in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Translations:
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Chutzpah
Dansk (Danish)
n. - frejdighed grænsende til frækhed
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.)
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
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) جرأة
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American Heritage Dictionary
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Barron's Business Dictionary
Dictionary of Business Terms. Copyright © 2007 by Barron's Educational Series, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Roget's Thesaurus
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 byHoughton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang
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Random House Word Menu
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Wikipedia on Answers.com
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