a language closely related to High German containing elements of Hebrew and Slavonic that is usu written in Hebrew characters and is spoken by Jews chiefly in or from E Europe
Yiddish adj
Yiddish yidish, short for yidish daytsh Jewish German. Yiddish words that have passed into English include bagel, chutzpah, goy, kosher, nosh, pogrom, schlep, and schmaltz. Most have entered American English as a consequence of the immigration of almost three million Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi Jews into the USA between 1880 and 1910, although a few words of Yiddish origin (such as shtum) are found only in British English