goy
Americannoun
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a term used by a Jew to refer to someone who is not Jewish.
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a term used by an observant Jew to refer to a Jew who is not religious or is ignorant of Judaism.
noun
Sensitive Note
In Yiddish and Hebrew, goy is a neutral, descriptive term meaning gentile. In English, it may sometimes be used disparagingly or contemptuously. The word is also considered disparaging when it is applied to a Jew who is not observant.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of goy
First recorded in 1835–45; from Yiddish, from Hebrew goi “nation, non-Jew, Jew ignorant of the Jewish religion”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"Shabbos goy" is a term used to refer to non-Jews employed by Orthodox Jews to perform certain services that are forbidden on the Sabbath.
From Fox News • Nov. 28, 2021
He could even speak a little Yiddish, from his teenage stint as “a schlepper” at a baby furniture and toy store owned by immigrant Jews and as a Shabbos goy in the neighborhood.
From New York Times • Oct. 23, 2021
I even shacked up with a goy – oy vey!
From The Guardian • Dec. 21, 2019
And, of course, I’m the goy playing a Jew in the movie.
From Washington Post • Oct. 22, 2015
And then the words the woman had spoken came to her: a goy zugt a vertl.
From "The Devil's Arithmetic" by Jane Yolen
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
