Chutzpah
KHOOTS-pah · חוצפה · Yiddish, from Hebrew
What does chutzpah mean?
Chutzpah means bold nerve, audacity, or supreme self-confidence. It can describe shameless gall (someone who crosses a line without blinking) or, just as often today, the kind of guts people admire: the confidence to go for something everyone else thought was too bold to try.
Where the word comes from
Chutzpah entered English through Yiddish khutspe, which in turn comes from the Hebrew word ḥutzpah, meaning insolence or cheek. In its original Yiddish and Hebrew use, the word leaned negative: it named someone acting with more nerve than they had any right to. English speakers picked it up in the mid-1800s through Yiddish-speaking immigrant communities, and it has been part of everyday American English ever since.
Root sense
Insolence, cheek, and nerve, more than you’d expect someone to have.
How it's used today
The classic illustration is the kid who kills his parents and then begs the court for mercy because he’s an orphan: chutzpah as pure gall. But the word has widened. Say someone had “the chutzpah to ask for a raise on day one” and you’re not insulting them, you’re a little impressed. That double meaning, gall on one side and admirable boldness on the other, is exactly why the word stuck around: it names a very specific kind of confidence that doesn’t apologize for itself.
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