i’ve been wondering about this for a little while and none of my friends who are jewish can tell me what it means or where it comes from, just that its something that isn’t supposed to be said. so where does the word kike come from?
It was first used (by German-American Jews, I think) as a slur against Eastern European immigrant Jews, many of them who had names ending in -ski or -sky.
This site supports Captain Amazing’s version as one of three possibilities.
Leo Rosten, in his The Joys of Yiddish considers that explanation, but rejects it in favor of the first explanation from the linked site: that Jews immigrating at Ellis Island who could not sign their names (in Roman script) indicated their “mark” with a circle (avoiding the Christian X with its associations of the Cross) and came to be known among the immigration agents as the kikel or kikeleh (“circle” or “little circle” in Yiddish) people. Rosten also provides a citation to an officer at Ellis Island for that version. He then notes that Jewish peddlers would accept payment “on account” with the same marks and came to be known as kikee men.
I tend to agree with Rosten’s assessment that the -ski or -sky or -cki name endings are an improbable source, as those name would universally rhyme with the English word ski, making it unlikely that they would give rise to a word that rhymed with bike.
The Random House Dictionary of Historic American Slang tends to support Captain. While, as tom offered, it is only one theory, it is(was) the best offered when the book was written. (1997).
Ellis Island operated only from 1892. There is an 1888 cite
While the word “kike” doesn’t appear in the cite, it’s useful when combined with the 1926 quote below.
Lighter, the editor of the RHDHAS, offers that it is perhaps an “alternative of Ike, hypocoristic form of male give name Isaac.” But he quickly adds, “origin uncertain.”
LIghter adds a 1926 quote from American Speech wherein the writer says
One can debate whether this “after-the-fact” quote can be trusted, but it is interesting.