kike

Origin: Originally used by German-American Jews as a slur for Eastern European Jews immigrating to the United States. The most dominant theory is from . In the early 20th century, non-English-speaking Jews that immigrated to the United States would sign papers with a circle as opposed to a more common X, in order to avoid using a symbol reminiscent of a Christian Cross. If so, a . Other theories also exist, in particular a contraction from the documented phrase “Ikey-Kikey”, an American-origin reduplication of ikey, which in turn is a British-English pejorative for Jews after the prevalence of the. Origin information sourced from Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0).