dreidel

See also: Dreidel

English
WOTD – 10 December 2020

Etymology
A wooden dreidel (sense 1). The letters on the sides of the dreidel indicate actions to be taken in the game played with the top: נ (nun) (Yiddish נישט (nisht, “not”), meaning “nothing”), ג (gimel) (גאַנץ (gants, “entire, whole”)), ה (hey) (האַלב (halb, “half”)), and ש (shin) (שטעל אַרײַן (shtel arayn, “put in”)) (or פ (pey)). However, according to folk etymology, the letters represent the Hebrew phrase נֵס גָּדוֹל הָיָה שָׁם (nes gadól hayá sham, “a great miracle happened there”) or נֵס גָּדוֹל הָיָה פֹּה (nes gadól hayá po, “a great miracle happened here”), referring to the miracle of the cruse of oil.

Borrowed from Yiddish דריידל (dreydl, “dreidel; spinning top”), probably a blend of דרייען (dreyen, “to spin; to turn; to twist”) +‎ טרענדל (trendl, “(dated) dreidel; spinning top”). דרייען (dreyen) is derived from Middle High German dræn, from Old High German drāen (“to turn; to twist”), from Proto-West Germanic *þrāan, from Proto-Germanic *þrēaną (“to turn; to twist”), from Proto-Indo-European *terh₁- (“to turn; to rub; to drill, pierce”); and טרענדל (trendl) is derived from Middle High German trendel (“spinning top”), from Proto-Germanic *trandijaną (“to revolve, spin”).[1]

Pronunciation

Noun

dreidel (plural dreidels)

  1. A four-sided spinning top, inscribed with the four Hebrew letters נ (nun), ג (gimel), ה (hey), and ש (shin) (or פ (pey)) on each side, often used to play a traditional game during the Jewish festival of Hanukkah.
    • 1927, “I Have a Little Dreidel”, Samuel S. Grossman (lyrics), Samuel Eliezer Goldfarb or Mikhl Gelbart (music):
      I have a little dreidel. I made it out of clay. / And when it's dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play. / Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay. / Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, then dreidel I shall play.
    • 2005 December 23, Jonathan Safran Foer, “A Beginner's Guide to Hanukkah”, in The New York Times‎:
      The dreidel is a spinning toy, painstakingly fashioned out of plastic polymer by Jewish craftsmen in Vietnam. Used for tabletop gambling games during Hanukkah, the dreidel often ends up on the floor and sometimes in the dog's small intestine.
    • 2023 December 7, Jacey Fortin, “For Some, the Symbols of Hanukkah Bring Extra Concern This Year”, in The New York Times‎, image caption:
      Students from the Yeshiva Beth Yehudah School danced in dreidel costumes at a menorah lighting in Detroit on Thursday.
  2. A gambling game played using this top.
    • 2022 January 19, Yair Rosenberg, “Why So Many People Still Don’t Understand Anti-Semitism”, in The Atlantic‎:
      We do not spend our days huddled in smoke-filled rooms plotting world domination while Jared Kushner plays dreidel in the back with Noam Chomsky and George Soros sneaks the last latke.

Alternative forms

Translations

See also

References
  1. Compare “dreidel, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, December 2019; “dreidel, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

Anagrams

Portuguese

Noun

dreidel m (plural dreidels)

  1. dreidel (four-sided spinning top with Hebrew letters)
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