The Meaning Behind the Merch
We print these words on shirts, so we owe them the real story. This glossary covers every Hebrew and Yiddish word that shows up across our collections, from the grandparent tees to the dictionary-definition line. Each entry gives you the word in its original letters, an easy way to say it, what it means, where it came from, and how it sounds in an actual sentence. Some of these words came to us through the Yiddish of Eastern Europe, some through modern Israeli Hebrew, and a few through Aramaic, the language of the Talmud. We checked every definition against sources like My Jewish Learning, Chabad.org, Merriam-Webster and the Jewish English Lexicon, because a word you wear should be a word you can explain. Two entries don’t have a tee yet. Consider them a hint.
Chutzpah חוצפה
Hebrew and Yiddish · KHOOTS-pah
Nerve, audacity, gall. Depending on who is saying it and why, it is either a scolding or the highest compliment in the room.
Origin: From the Yiddish khutspe, which comes from the Hebrew chutzpah. It has been circulating in English since the 1800s, and it has never once asked permission.
She asked the farmers market for a bulk discount on three tomatoes and got it. Pure chutzpah.
Mensch מענטש
Yiddish · MENCH
A decent, honorable person. Someone who does the right thing when nobody is keeping score.
Origin: From the Yiddish mentsh, literally “human being,” which comes from Middle High German mensch. Calling someone a mensch means they have lived up to the literal meaning.
He drove two hours to help us move and wouldn’t take gas money. A total mensch.
Bashert באַשערט
Yiddish · bah-SHERT
Destined, meant to be. Most often it means your soulmate, though anything that feels fated can be bashert.
Origin: Yiddish. The word itself is fairly recent and its exact etymology is unclear, but the idea is ancient: the Talmud (Sotah 2a) teaches that forty days before an embryo is formed, a heavenly voice announces whom that person will marry.
They met standing in the wrong line at the airport. Bashert.
Vilde Chaye ווילדע חיה
Yiddish · VIL-deh KHAI-yeh
Literally “wild animal.” Said of a person, usually a kid, who is bouncing off the walls, and almost always said with love.
Origin: Yiddish, with roots in two languages. Vilde is Germanic, a cousin of the English “wild,” and chaye comes from the Hebrew word for animal.
Two slices of birthday cake in, my nephew was a full vilde chaye.
Kosher כשר
Hebrew and Yiddish · KOH-sher
Literally “fit” or “proper.” It describes food that meets Jewish dietary law, and in everyday English it means legit or above board.
Origin: From the Hebrew kasher, “fit,” by way of the Yiddish pronunciation kosher. The same word also describes ritual items that are fit for use, not just food.
Is that offer kosher, or is there a catch buried in the fine print?
Abba אבא
Hebrew · AH-bah
Dad. The everyday Hebrew word for father, used by toddlers and grown adults alike. In the Talmudic era it even worked as a name.
Origin: Aramaic in origin, where it meant “the father,” and part of Hebrew since ancient times. The formal Hebrew word is av; abba is the one you shout from the next room.
Ask Abba, he knows where the good batteries are hidden.
Ima אמא
Hebrew · EE-mah
Mom. The everyday Hebrew word for mother. Like abba, it has worked as a name too: the wife of the sage Rabbi Eliezer was known as Ima Shalom.
Origin: Like abba, it comes from Aramaic, where it meant “the mother,” and it has been used in Hebrew since ancient times. The formal Hebrew word is em, and you will also see ima spelled ema or eema.
Ima already knows. Ima always knows.
Saba סבא
Hebrew · SAH-bah
Grandpa, in Hebrew. It is what Israeli grandkids call their grandfather, and plenty of families outside Israel have adopted it too.
Origin: From Aramaic, where sava meant an elder or old man, related to the Hebrew seivah, “old age” or “gray hair.” Modern Hebrew settled on saba for grandfather in the twentieth century, reportedly because it sat so naturally next to abba in a child’s mouth.
Saba still insists on driving everyone to the airport himself.
Savta סבתא
Hebrew · SAHV-tah
Grandma, in Hebrew. Outside Israel it tends to turn up in families with close ties to the country, sometimes right alongside a Bubbie on the other side of the family.
Origin: The partner word to saba, also from Aramaic. The Talmud already uses savta for a grandmother (Bava Batra 125b), and you will sometimes hear it pronounced safta.
Nobody leaves Savta’s table hungry, and nobody leaves without her opinion on their haircut.
Zaide זיידע
Yiddish · ZAY-dee
Grandpa, in Yiddish. The word carries a whole grandfather inside it: the stories, the candy in the coat pocket, the nap in the good armchair.
Origin: From the Yiddish zeyde, borrowed from the Slavic languages of Eastern Europe (compare the Polish dziad). English spellings run wild, from zayde to zeyde to zaidie, and they all mean the same beloved man.
Zaide tells the same story at every seder, and we still laugh right on cue.
Bubbie (also Bubbe, Buba, Baba) באָבע
Yiddish · BUB-ee (Bubbie, Bubbe); BUH-buh (Buba); BAH-bah (Baba)
Grandma, in Yiddish. It doubles as a term of endearment for little kids too, which is where bubbeleh comes from.
Origin: From the Yiddish bobe, meaning grandmother or old woman, most likely borrowed from the Slavic baba. That is why the spellings vary so much: Bubbie, Bubbe and Buba are all English takes on the Yiddish, and Baba sits closest to the Slavic original.
Bubbie measures in handfuls and pinches, and the kugel still comes out perfect.
Chai חי
Hebrew · KHAI (rhymes with “high”)
Life, or living. Its letters add up to 18, which is why Jews so often give gifts and tzedakah in multiples of 18.
Origin: Hebrew, spelled with two letters, chet and yud. In gematria, where each letter carries a number, chet is 8 and yud is 10. It is also the last word of Am Yisrael Chai, “the people of Israel live.”
We gave them $36 for the wedding. Double chai.
Shalom שלום
Hebrew · shah-LOHM
Peace. Also hello, and also goodbye, which makes it one of the hardest-working words in Hebrew.
Origin: Hebrew, from the root shalem, “whole” or “complete.” In the Bible, shalom means more than the absence of conflict; it is well-being, security and wholeness all at once.
Shalom, everyone, grab a seat, the food is getting cold.
Sababa סבבה
Hebrew · sah-BAH-bah
Cool, great, no problem. Israel’s all-purpose thumbs-up, good for everything from agreeing to plans to rating a falafel.
Origin: Israeli slang borrowed from Arabic, where sababa originally meant a passionate longing. Hebrew speakers in Jaffa were using it to mean “great” by 1964, and it went mainstream in the 1970s. It has since traveled back into the Arabic spoken in Israel, a neat bit of linguistic ping-pong.
Running late? Sababa, we saved you a seat.
Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום
Hebrew · shah-BAHT shah-LOHM
“Sabbath of peace.” The standard greeting on Shabbat and in the hours leading up to it, used for both hello and goodbye.
Origin: Hebrew. Shabbat is the weekly day of rest, and shalom means peace. Many Ashkenazi families say the Yiddish version instead, Gut Shabbos, “good Sabbath.”
Shabbat shalom! Come in, the challah just came out of the oven.
Kvetch קוועטש
Yiddish · KVETCH
To complain, gripe or whine, usually about something small. It is also a noun for the person doing the complaining.
Origin: From the Yiddish kvetshn, “to squeeze” or “to press.” In Yiddish it still means pressing a button; in English it means pressing everyone’s patience.
He kvetched about the parking for twenty minutes, then moved on to the soup.
Schlep שלעפּ
Yiddish · SHLEP
To drag or haul something, usually with effort and a little complaining. As a noun, a schlep is a long, tiresome trip.
Origin: From the Yiddish shlepn, “to drag,” which traces back to Middle High German. It entered English in the early twentieth century and never let go.
We schlepped three coolers and a folding table to the beach for a two-hour picnic.