Kosher

How to spell kosher

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce kosher

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does kosher mean?

1. adjectiveSatisfying the requirements of Jewish dietary law.
2. adjectiveInformally, genuine, legitimate, or done according to the rules.

Kosher in a sentence

• The deli stocks kosher meat prepared under rabbinical supervision.

• The accountant confirmed that every transaction was completely kosher.

• The airline offers a kosher meal for passengers who request one.

• The buyer wanted proof that the car's paperwork was kosher before paying.

Where does kosher come from?

Language of origin: Hebrew

This word comes from the Hebrew kasher, which literally meant 'fit', 'proper', or 'suitable'. In Jewish religious law it came to describe food and utensils that satisfy the dietary rules of kashrut, so something kosher is something that conforms to those standards. English picked the word up in the nineteenth century, largely through Yiddish, the language of Jewish communities in central and eastern Europe, who pronounced and spelled it in the form that gave us the modern 'kosher'. Over time English speakers stretched the meaning well beyond food, using 'kosher' colloquially to mean anything that is legitimate, above board, or done by the rules. The spelling trap is that the opening sounds like a hard 'c' yet is written with a 'k', and the middle 'sh' is spelled with the single letters 'sh', so writers must remember it is k-o-s-h-e-r and not 'cosher' or 'kosure'.

How the word is built

• From Hebrew kasher (fit, proper); not a prefix-root-suffix compound but a borrowed whole