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Synonyms for shibboleth

Grammar : Noun
Spell : shib-uh-lith, ‐leth
Phonetic Transcription : ˈʃɪb ə lɪθ, ‐ˌlɛθ


Définition of shibboleth

Origin :
  • late 14c., the Hebrew word shibboleth, meaning "flood, stream," also "ear of corn;" in Judges xii:4-6. It was the password used by the Gileadites to distinguish their own men from fleeing Ephraimites, because Ephraimites could not pronounce the -sh- sound. Hence the figurative sense of "watchword" (first recorded 1630s), which evolved by 1862 to "outmoded slogan still adhered to." A similar test-word was cicera "chick pease," used by the Italians to identify the French (who could not pronounce it correctly) during the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers (1282).
  • noun slogan
Example sentences :
  • The Shibboleth is always absurd and in a case like the present ruinous.
  • Extract from : « A Girl of the Commune » by George Alfred Henty
  • High warp and low warp are the terms so often used as to seem a shibboleth.
  • Extract from : « The Tapestry Book » by Helen Churchill Candee
  • How tiresome the shibboleth which many clergymen talk in church is!
  • Extract from : « The Story of My Life, volumes 4-6 » by Augustus J. C. Hare
  • This does not mean that all ethics lies compact in the shibboleth, Be yourself.
  • Extract from : « Philosophy and The Social Problem » by Will Durant
  • He did not repudiate the sincerely pious, because they could not say his “Shibboleth.”
  • Extract from : « Sermons of Christmas Evans » by Joseph Cross
  • "And sold to——" became our slogan, our shibboleth and our most familiar sentence.
  • Extract from : « The Abandoned Farmers » by Irvin S. Cobb
  • Progress, the white man's shibboleth, has no meaning for the Patagonian.
  • Extract from : « Through the Heart of Patagonia » by H. Hesketh Prichard
  • There is a crispness and sharpness about his tones—that shibboleth of militaryism.
  • Extract from : « Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St Luke » by Henry Burton
  • A Frenchman might as well try to give the password of Shibboleth.
  • Extract from : « Punch, or The London Charivari, Vol. 62, January 20, 1872 » by Various
  • Its words were the touchstone of wills, the shibboleth of souls.
  • Extract from : « John Greenleaf Whittier » by W. Sloane Kennedy

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Based on : Thesaurus.com - Gutenberg.org - Dictionary.com - Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019