chutzpah

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day

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🗓️ 18 February 2025

⏱️ 2 minutes

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Summary

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for February 18, 2025 is:

chutzpah • \KHOOTS-puh\ • noun

Chutzpah is audacious boldness often paired with reckless self-confidence. Someone with chutzpah dares to do or say things that seem shocking to others.

// It took a lot of chutzpah to stand up to her boss the way she did.

See the entry >1. list text here

Examples:

“... [Anne] Hathaway is not easily talked out of things she believes in. She took drama classes, understudied future Tony winner Laura Benanti in a production of Jane Eyre at 14, and had the chutzpah to write to an agent with her headshot at 15.” — Julie Miller, Vanity Fair, 25 Mar. 2024

Did you know?

The word chutzpah has been boldly circulating through English since the mid-1800s. It comes from the Yiddish word khutspe, which comes in turn from the Hebrew word ḥuṣpāh. The ch in chutzpah indicates a rasping sound from the back of the throat that exists in many languages, including Yiddish. That sound is not part of English phonology, so it follows that the c is sometimes dropped in both the pronunciation and spelling of the word. Some speakers of Yiddish feel that chutzpah has been diluted in English use, no longer properly conveying the monumental nature of the gall that is implied. A classic example can be found in Leo Rosten’s 1968 book The Joys of Yiddish, which defines chutzpah as “that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	It's the Word of the Day podcast for February 18th.
0:11.3	Today's word is chutzpah, also pronounced hutzpah, and spelled C-H-U-T-Z-P-A-H.
0:19.8	Hutzpah is a noun. It's a shameless or disrespectful boldness T-Z P-A-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-P-P-P-A-H-H-H-P-P-A-H-P-H-P-P-A-H-H-P-E-H-P-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-M-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E-R-E- word used in a sentence from Vanity Fair by Julie Miller. Anne Hathaway is not easily talked out
0:39.5	of things she believes in. She took drama classes, understudied future Tony winner Laura Benanti
0:45.5	in a production of Jane Eyre at 14, and had the chutzpah to write to an agent with her
0:51.7	headshot at 15. The word chutzpah has been boldly circulating through
0:56.8	English since the mid-1800s. It comes to English from Yiddish, which in turn took the word from Hebrew.
1:04.2	The CH in chutzpah indicates a rasping sound from the back of the throat that exists in many
1:10.2	languages, including Yiddish.
1:11.9	That sound is not part of English phonology, so it follows that the sea is sometimes dropped
1:18.0	in both the pronunciation and the spelling of the word. Some speakers of Yiddish feel that
1:23.2	Hutzpah has been diluted in English use, no longer properly conveying the monumental nature of the
1:29.0	gall that is implied. A classic example can be found in Leo Rosten's 1968 book, The Joys of Yiddish,
1:36.9	which defines Hutzpah as that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father,
1:43.4	throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan.
1:47.5	With your word of the day, I'm Peter Sokolowski.
1:52.9	Visit Miriamwebster.com today for definitions, wordplay, and trending word lookups.

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