Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Yiddish ·1950s
Megillah
from מגילה (megile)
- Meaning
- A long, involved story or rigmarole.
- Source word
- מגילה (megile)
- Route into English
- Yiddish *megile* (from Hebrew *məgillâ*, scroll — specifically the Book of Esther read at Purim) → English as slang for any long-winded explanation, often in "the whole megillah."
- Arrived
- 1950s
From Yiddish
Mass migration from Ashkenazi Eastern Europe to New York (1880–1920) funnelled Yiddish into American English, from where it diffused globally.
English borrows.
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