Hebrew shibbōleth stream; from the use of this word as a test to distinguish Gileadites from Ephraimites, who pronounced it sibbōleth. In the biblical account (Judges 12:4–6) of a battle between the Ephraimites and Gileadites, the Ephraimites were defeated, and those of their forces who escaped the battlefield tried to pass themselves off as Gileadites and cross the river Jordan to safety. To identify them, everyone crossing the river was asked to pronounce the word shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who spoke a different dialect, could not cope with the /sh/ sound but could only pronounce it as /s/; thus they were found out, and 42,000 of them were killed. The metaphorical senses of the word entered English in the mid-17th cent