goy

See also: Goy, göy, gøy, and goþ

English

WOTD – 15 April 2016

Alternative forms

• Goy
• goi, Goi

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish גוי (goy, “gentile”), from Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, “nation”).

Compare Exodus 19:6: ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש (mamlekhet kohanim wegoy qadosh, “ […] a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”) (referring to the Jewish people). The word goy technically refers not to non-Jews, but rather to a nation per se; the Jews are said to constitute a “goy”. But through common usage – namely referring to "the [other non-Jewish] nations" – the word came to colloquially refer to non-Jews.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡɔɪ/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

  • Audio (US):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪ

Noun

goy (plural goyim or goys or goyem)

1. (sometimes offensive) A non-Jew, a gentile.

   Synonyms: gentile, non-Jew, (pejorative) akum, (pejorative) shegetz, (pejorative) shkotz

   Hyponym: (female) shiksa

   • 1988, Anthony Burgess, Any Old Iron:

     I don’t think that marriage is working, but I’m not going to be stupid about it and say she shouldn’t have married a goy.

Usage notes

• This noun is sometimes taken to be offensive; speakers wishing to avoid offense may prefer the term gentile (sometimes capitalized as Gentile) or simply non-Jew.
• The plural goyim is occasionally misinterpreted as a singular form by people unfamiliar with Hebrew, yielding redundant plural forms such as goyims.

Derived terms

• anti-goy
• antigoyism
• anti-goyish
• goyish
• shabbos goy

Translations

non-Jew

• Albanian: jo-hebre m
• Arabic: أَغْيَار m (ʔaḡyār), جُوي m (jūy)
• Catalan: Goy
• Czech: gój (cs) m
• Danish: ikke-jøde c
• Dutch: niet-Jood (nl), goj (nl)
• Esperanto: gojo (eo), nejudo (eo)
• French: goy (fr) m, goï (fr) m, gentil (fr) m
• German: Goi (de) m, Nichtjude (de) m
• Hebrew: גּוֹי (he) m (goi)
• Hungarian: gój (hu)
• Italian: Goy m
• Persian: گوی (fa) (gowy)
• Polish: Goj m
• Portuguese: goy (pt) m or f, gói (pt) m or f
• Russian: гой (ru) m (goj)
• Spanish: goy m or f by sense
• Swedish: goj (sv) c
• Ukrainian: гой m (hoj)
• Yiddish: גוי m (goy)

Anagrams

• ygo

Anguthimri

Noun

goy

1. (Mpakwithi) buck wallaby

References

• Terry Crowley, The Mpakwithi dialect of Anguthimri (1981), page 186

Ladino

Etymology

From Hebrew גוי.

Noun

goy m (Latin spelling, Hebrew spelling גוי, plural goyim, feminine goya)

1. goy, gentile, non-Jew

Further reading

• Aitor García Moreno, editor (2013–), “goy, yá”, in Diccionario Histórico Judeoespañol (in Spanish), CSIC
• Aitor García Moreno, editor (2013–), “goyim”, in Diccionario Histórico Judeoespañol (in Spanish), CSIC

Portuguese

Etymology 1

Noun

goy m or f by sense (plural goys)

1. Alternative spelling of gói

Etymology 2

Possibly by influence from English guy, by association with gay.

Noun

goy m (plural goys)

1. a homosexual male who does not assume himself as such; a closeted gay

References

• "Goy" in Dicionário Informal.

Salar

Etymology

From Proto-Turkic *koń. Compare to Turkish koyun, Kazakh қой (qoi), Southern Altai кой (koy), Azerbaijani qoyun, etc.

Pronunciation

• (Chahandusi, Qingshui, Hanbahe, Baizhuang, Mengda, Ejia, Daowei, Xunhua, Qinghai, Ili, Yining, Xinjiang) IPA^(key): [qoj]
• (Jiezi, Gaizi, Xunhua, Qinghai) IPA^(key): [koj]

Noun

goy (3rd person possessive goyı, plural goylar)

1. sheep

Related terms

• goşgur (“ram”)

References

• Tenishev, Edhem (1976) “qoi”, in Stroj salárskovo jazyká, Moscow, pages 386, 463
• 马伟 (Ma Wei), 朝克 (Chao Ke) (2016) “qoy”, in 濒危语言——撒拉语研究, 青海 (Qinghai): 国家社会科学基金项目 (National Social Science Foundation Project), page 263
• Ma, Chengjun, Han, Lianye, Ma, Weisheng (December 2010) “qoy”, in 米娜瓦尔 艾比布拉 (Minavar Abibra), editor, 撒维汉词典 (Sāwéihàncídiǎn) (in Chinese), 1st edition, Beijing, →ISBN, page 234
• 林莲云 (1985) “goy”, in 撒拉语简志‎^[1], Beijing: 民族出版社: 琴書店, →OCLC, page 4
• Yakup, Abdurishid (2002) “goy”, in An Ili Salar Vocabulary: Introduction and a Provisional Salar-English Lexicon‎^[2], Tokyo: University of Tokyo, →ISBN, page 107

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish גוי (goy, “gentile”), from Hebrew גּוֹי (goi, “nation”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡoi/ [ˈɡoi̯]
• Rhymes: -oi
• Syllabification: goy

Noun

goy m or f by sense (plural goyim)

1. (sometimes offensive) goy

   Synonym: gentil