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单词 shibboleth
释义

Definition of shibboleth in English:

shibboleth

noun ˈʃɪbəlɛθˈʃɪbələθ
  • A custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important.

    过时的风俗(或准则、信仰)

    liberal shibboleths about education
    Example sentencesExamples
    • Political correctness is a shibboleth, a convenient catch - all term with which progressive policies can be tainted by association with absurd anecdotes.
    • Yet, it points to a tendency - I'll put it as weakly as that - toward re-marketing tired conservative shibboleths as funky new contrarian understandings.
    • In fact, it appears to us that a number of longstanding economic shibboleths are about to be blown apart if the dollar's descent continues.
    • It holds up the assumptions about Beauty, Truth, Genius, Civilisation, Taste and other shibboleths to bracing class and gender analysis.
    • Ideological liberalism and cutthroat business tactics went hand in hand with a slackened commitment to the traditional journalistic shibboleths of objectivity and accuracy in reporting.
    • That is why those people arguing shibboleths, arguing for referendums, are defeating their own argument, because the strength of the argument we have heard today is exactly why we should not have a referendum.
    • Bizarre or not, uncritical attachment to old shibboleths inexorably yield contradiction.
    • He was up at the microphone chanting two of the most sacred lefty shibboleths.
    • They broke with the old shibboleth that sovereignty cannot be divided and thus that there must be some supremely sovereign legislative body in every independent political unit.
    • It's not bad to be reminded that there's a whole horde of men of his generation out there in the sticks for whom the old shibboleths are pretty important.
    • It is more or less free of regional, class, and other shibboleths, although the issue of a ‘standard accent’ often causes trouble and tension.
    • If it means questioning old shibboleths and finding new means of spending public money in partnership with the private sector then that might be no bad thing.
    • We believe that it is based on utterly false allegations regarding the Minnesota legal system and that it provides for indoctrination in the shibboleths of political correctness.
    • It is mandatory reading for the high school and college students who are spoon-fed the politically correct shibboleths that obscure an understanding of the men to whom we owe a unique debt of gratitude for our freedom.
    • And we can't blind ourselves to it or hide behind old shibboleths.
    • The various shocks that have convulsed the Japanese economy in the past decade have tested traditional management shibboleths to destruction.
    • In these globalising times, nobody likes to hear the old shibboleth from the past.
    • The old pre-war shibboleths of laissez-faire, including the hallowed principle of free trade itself, were bypassed or ignored.
    • But discarding a few outmoded shibboleths does not create a society that is at ease with itself and free of class anxieties, frictions and divisions.
    • As with the country's crusade against communism, the pointless violence reflects America's own shibboleths, fears, and internal politics rather than meaningful policy.
    Synonyms
    tradition, practice, usage, observance, way, convention, procedure, ceremony, ritual, ordinance, form, formality, fashion, mode, manner

Origin

Mid 17th century: from Hebrew šibbōleṯ 'ear of corn', used as a test of nationality by its difficult pronunciation (Judg. 12:6).

  • The people of Gilead, east of the river Jordan, and members of the Hebrew tribe of Ephraim did not speak the same dialect, and neither were they the best of friends. The Book of Judges recounts a battle between them, in which Jephthah told his men, the Gileadites, to identify defeated Ephraimites by asking them to say ‘shibboleth’, a Hebrew word meaning ‘ear of corn’ or ‘stream in flood’. Ephraimites had difficulty in pronouncing sh, and if a soldier said ‘sibboleth’ then he was killed as an enemy. Since the mid 17th century English speakers have used shibboleth for ‘a word used to detect foreigners or strangers’, and in the early 19th century extended this to ‘a custom, principle, or belief that distinguishes a particular class or group’. It now especially refers to a long-standing belief regarded as outmoded or no longer important.

Definition of shibboleth in US English:

shibboleth

nounˈSHibələTHˈʃɪbələθ
  • A custom, principle, or belief distinguishing a particular class or group of people, especially a long-standing one regarded as outmoded or no longer important.

    过时的风俗(或准则、信仰)

    the party began to break with the shibboleths of the left
    Example sentencesExamples
    • It is more or less free of regional, class, and other shibboleths, although the issue of a ‘standard accent’ often causes trouble and tension.
    • We believe that it is based on utterly false allegations regarding the Minnesota legal system and that it provides for indoctrination in the shibboleths of political correctness.
    • And we can't blind ourselves to it or hide behind old shibboleths.
    • It holds up the assumptions about Beauty, Truth, Genius, Civilisation, Taste and other shibboleths to bracing class and gender analysis.
    • Bizarre or not, uncritical attachment to old shibboleths inexorably yield contradiction.
    • That is why those people arguing shibboleths, arguing for referendums, are defeating their own argument, because the strength of the argument we have heard today is exactly why we should not have a referendum.
    • If it means questioning old shibboleths and finding new means of spending public money in partnership with the private sector then that might be no bad thing.
    • But discarding a few outmoded shibboleths does not create a society that is at ease with itself and free of class anxieties, frictions and divisions.
    • As with the country's crusade against communism, the pointless violence reflects America's own shibboleths, fears, and internal politics rather than meaningful policy.
    • It's not bad to be reminded that there's a whole horde of men of his generation out there in the sticks for whom the old shibboleths are pretty important.
    • The various shocks that have convulsed the Japanese economy in the past decade have tested traditional management shibboleths to destruction.
    • In fact, it appears to us that a number of longstanding economic shibboleths are about to be blown apart if the dollar's descent continues.
    • Political correctness is a shibboleth, a convenient catch - all term with which progressive policies can be tainted by association with absurd anecdotes.
    • The old pre-war shibboleths of laissez-faire, including the hallowed principle of free trade itself, were bypassed or ignored.
    • It is mandatory reading for the high school and college students who are spoon-fed the politically correct shibboleths that obscure an understanding of the men to whom we owe a unique debt of gratitude for our freedom.
    • In these globalising times, nobody likes to hear the old shibboleth from the past.
    • He was up at the microphone chanting two of the most sacred lefty shibboleths.
    • They broke with the old shibboleth that sovereignty cannot be divided and thus that there must be some supremely sovereign legislative body in every independent political unit.
    • Ideological liberalism and cutthroat business tactics went hand in hand with a slackened commitment to the traditional journalistic shibboleths of objectivity and accuracy in reporting.
    • Yet, it points to a tendency - I'll put it as weakly as that - toward re-marketing tired conservative shibboleths as funky new contrarian understandings.
    Synonyms
    tradition, practice, usage, observance, way, convention, procedure, ceremony, ritual, ordinance, form, formality, fashion, mode, manner

Origin

Mid 17th century: from Hebrew šibbōleṯ ‘ear of corn’, used as a test of nationality by its difficult pronunciation (Judg. 12:6).

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更新时间:2024/12/27 3:21:55