Shiksa

Shiksa (Yiddish: שיקסע, romanized: shikse) is an often disparaging term for a gentile woman or girl. The word, which is of Yiddish origin, has moved into English usage and some Hebrew usage (as well as Polish and German), mostly in North American Jewish culture.

Among Orthodox Jews, the term may be used to describe a Jewish girl or woman who fails to follow Orthodox religious precepts.

Etymology

The etymology of the word shiksa is partly derived from the Hebrew term שקץ shekets, meaning "abomination", "impure," or "object of loathing", depending on the translator. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it came into English usage in the late 19th century from the Yiddish shikse, which is an adaptation of the Hebrew word šiqṣâ, which is derived from sheqeṣ ("a detested thing") and the feminine suffix -â. A passage in which shekets (translated as "abomination") appeared in the Talmud to refer to people (rather than non-kosher actions) can be translated as:

Let him not marry the daughter of an unlearned and unobservant man, for they are an abomination and their wives a creeping thing.

Several dictionaries define shiksa as a disparaging and offensive term applied to a non-Jewish girl or woman.

The equivalent term for a non-Jewish male, used less frequently, is shegetz.

North American and diaspora context

In North American and other diaspora Jewish communities, the use of "shiksa" reflects more social complexities than merely being an insult to non-Jewish women. A woman can only be a shiksa if she is perceived as such by Jewish people, usually Jewish men, making the term difficult to define; Menachem Kaiser in the Los Angeles Review of Books suggested there are two concepts of the shiksa, the forbidden seductress and the hag.