I was reading my Bible the other day in Genisis. It’s good to go back to the beginning from time to time. I was on Gen. 18: 16-33, where Abraham was interceding on the part of Sodom and Gomorrah. Abe said, “Will you spare the city if you find 50 righteous men?”
When God agreed, Abraham went on , “What about 45?” The 30 and at last they settled on 10. God agreed to spare the city for the sake of 10 righteous men.
Is this the source of the phrase “to Jew someone down?”
No. Jew as verb only appears in English in the middle of the 19th century (and I am not aware of it appearing as a verb in other languages). The meaning to haggle with the modifier “down” does not appear for some time after the verb (meaning to cheat) originally appeared.
While Abraham was clearly haggling with God, this incident seems to have played no part in the coining of the phrase.
Abraham was also not technically a Jew, as he lived long before Judah.
For some silly reason, Jews have a nasty stereotype when it comes to doing business. Shakespeare knew about this when he created the Shylock character in The Merchant of Venice.
I personally find the expression “to Jew down” an insult; one of the values I was taught as a young Jew was to treat people fairly and not cheat them or haggle to the point where I have an unfair advantage. I assume other Jews were taught the same.
Robin ;j
I’m not Jewish, and I cannot stand this expression. It’s a horrible insult. I hear someone at my office use it once, and I told them to never use it again in my hearing.
It says a lot that “jewing someone down” is a bad thing, yet “living like a Christian” is good.
That there are more Christians than Jews?
Jews got the stereotype because they were often moneylenders in the middle ages. Christians weren’t allowed to lend money, so the niche was filled by Jews. And no one likes moneylenders, especially when they keep asking you for their money. Shylock, after all, was a moneylender.
I’ve never heard this expression. Where’s it been used? curious
I think the exact passage reads:
Oi vey!! THIRTY righteous men?! Ya killin me here? Vy don’t you just take my BLOOD?! I can give it to you for ten and not a righteous man more. Trust me!! It’s a great deal!
It is a somewhat offensive saying.
Growing up I thought the phrase was to “chew someone down”. When I heard what the real phrase was (from the movie School Ties, I believe), I stopped using it altogether.
Nowhere in polite company. It’s extremely offensive.
Of late, hopefully the same place as “nigger-rigged” and such phrases - antiquity:)
Anecdote time:
A FOAF, A., told my friend and me a story about how a coworker used this phrase. (All three of us are Jewish, btw.) A. was shocked and informed the coworker that that was an offensive phrase and to please retire it from her vocabulary, at least around her. Instead of doing the polite thing and apologizing, the coworker had a snit and claimed that A. was being overly sensitive. The next day she brought a dictionary by A.'s desk, to prove that it’s a real phrase. A. pointed out that the word following the dictionary was “perjorative”, but in retrospect, the woman probably didn’t know what that means. The next time I saw A., I asked her what came of the situation, and she said that the coworker never apologized and while before they had been casual “work friends”, they no longer spoke.
People are jerks.
I’ve only heard it used very rarely, and not for years–except a year or so back, when a member of the City Council used it at a public meeting. Instant uproar! It was news for weeks, and he had to apologize a lot, blaming a momentary lapse and a tacky background.
Were we to update the verb for the aughts, I’d nominate a change to: “chinesing sum won down”
I hear it used quite a bit. It’s old as dirt. I’m another one who won’t allow this expression to be used in my home. Not much you can do outside the house (except for work, I suppose) but give a disapproving glare.
Robyn, I had no idea you were a Jew.
I heard it growing up, from my dad. Only a couple of times, and only when he was buying a used car. He may have known the origin of the phrase and thought it appropriate, but I’m not sure about that. I somehow never made the connection until I was quite a lot older. It didn’t occur to me that it was pejorative until I actually paid attention to the words themselves, as opposed to the whole phrase, whose meaning I knew as “to haggle”. Fortunately, I didn’t use it before that, and of course I don’t use it now. I did the same thing with “Indian giver”. Knew the meaning of the phrase without realizing where it came from, and never thought about it as connected to any specific people. Don’t use that one anymore, either.
I was shocked to hear this term out of a young co-worker’s mouth, to a client. After the client left, I explained to her just how rude it was. She was aghast, she didn’t know the full meaning. The client later called to complain to me about her, and I explained that she simply had not known the meaning.
I went to Governor’s School when I was in high school. I grew up in a very small town in rural middle/east Tennessee, and I had never knowingly met a Jew in my life. I used the phrase in question in front of a very pretty red-headed girl, who promptly informed me what an clod I was. I had heard the phrase, but I had never seen it written down and had no inkling of the whole Jews-are-tight-fisted-Shylock-moneylenders thing. I thought it would be written “Joo you down” and figured that “Joo” was yet another nonsense word coined by my country cousins, like when my grandmother would yell at me to wear a coat when I went outside lest I catch the “Ep-oo-zoo-dick”.
Later, I found out that “epizoodic” is like “epidemic”, only among farm animals, and that there was a significant outbreak of a epizoodic during the Depression in East Tennessee.
Where I work, I was confronted with the possibility that I might be working on a line of products for Jewish consumers. I was a little twirled out by the prospect, because I know so little about the culture (aside from the average non-Jewish person’s knowledge about certain holidays), and was venting my concern on my (75-year-old) mother, who said (in complete and utter innocence and sincerity) that the only thing SHE knew about Jewish culture was that phrase–which she used in reference to her father, who was, perhaps ironically, black. 
I explained to her that it wasn’t cool to go around saying that, and I’m still not sure she sees anything wrong with it, but she’s watching herself.
Of course, this is the same woman who has decided that from now on she’s going to list her racial designation (on forms, etc.) as “Sambo”.
My mom (who was raised in the Midwest) says “Epizootic” too!