# Anti-semetic slur origin? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 24, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semetic-slur-origin/170795 "2003-04-24T05:24:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ata66](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@ata66](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ata66)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semetic-slur-origin/170795/1 "2003-04-24T05:24:58Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semetic-slur-origin/170795/2 "2003-04-24T05:33:44Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semetic-slur-origin/170795/3 "2003-04-24T05:53:42Z")
[This site](http://www.faqs.org/faqs/judaism/FAQ/11-Miscellaneous/section-14.html) 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. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2003, 6:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semetic-slur-origin/170795/4 "2003-04-24T06:50:18Z")
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 > [@](#): > > Look carefully before taking any risks offered by men whose names end in _-ein, -ky, or -kie_. 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 > [@](#): > > Since the names of so many … eastern European Jews ended in “ki” or “ky,” German-American Jewish traveling men designated them contemptuously as “kikis.” …When I heard the word “kikis” for the first time at Winona, Minesota, about [1886], it was a Jewish salesman of German descent who used it and explained it to me; but in the course of a few years it disappeared, “kike” being used instead. One can debate whether this “after-the-fact” quote can be trusted, but it is interesting.