Shibboleth (pronounced shib-uh-lith or shib-uh-leth)
(1) A belief, principle, or practice which is commonly adhered to but which is thought by some people to be inappropriate or out of date.
(2) A custom, phrase, or use of language that acts as a test of belonging to, or as a stumbling block to becoming a member of, a particular social class, profession etc.
(3) A slogan; catchword.
Circa 1300s: From the Hebrew שִׁבֹּלֶת (shibbólet) (ear of grain (the part of a plant containing grain, such as the head of a stalk of wheat or rye) (and more rarely "stream, flood or torrent")). The word was used as a password by the Gileadites as a test to detect the fleeing Ephraimites, who could not pronounce the sound sh (Judges 12:4–6). From this emerged by the 1630s the figurative sense of "watchword", the additional meaning "outmoded slogan still adhered to" noted by 1862.
The Ephraimites and the Gileadites
The story behind the word is in the Old Testament’s Book of Judges (12:1-15). In ancient Hebrew, shibboleth translated literally as “ear of grain” (stream, flood or torrent in some translations), some groups pronouncing it with a "sh" sound, but speakers of related dialects pronounced it with a hard s.
In the story, two Semitic tribes, the Ephraimites and the Gileadites, fight a great battle. The Gileadites defeat the Ephraimites, and set up a blockade across the Jordan River to catch the fleeing Ephraimites who were trying to get back to their territory. The sentries asked each person who wanted to cross the river to say the word shibboleth. The Ephraimites, who had no "sh" sound in their language, pronounced the word with a hard s and were thereby unmasked as the enemy and slaughtered.
12:4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men
of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim: and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim,
because they said, Ye Gileadites are fugitives of Ephraim among the
Ephraimites, and among the Manassites.
12:5 And the Gileadites took the passages of
Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so, that when those Ephraimites which
were escaped said, Let me go over; that the men of Gilead said unto him, art
thou an Ephraimite? If he say Nay;
12:6 Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan: and there fell at that time of the Ephraimites forty and two thousand.
As a technique to identify foreigners, the use may have predated the biblical tale of the Gileadites and Ephraimites and there are many instances in history. The Italians used the test-word cicera (chick pease) to identify the French during the massacre called the Sicilian Vespers (1282).
During WWII, while conducting training exercises on Pavuvu and Guadalcanal, the Marines improved battlefield security not with a password, but by an identification procedure described as "sign and countersign", the technique being sequentially to interrogate an unknown friend or foe with the name of an automobile which required the "L" sound in vocalization. The response was required to be a cognomen for another automobile uttered in the same manner and in an accent definitely American; those who answered call out "Chryswer" or "Cadiwac" likely to be shot.
The ancient use of a shibboleth to allow the detection of enemies within was revived in 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukrainians, if suspecting someone might be a Russian, challenge them to say the word “palyanitsa”, a soft wheat bread with a crispy crust, natives of the two nations pronouncing it differently and it's said to be difficult for Russians to master the Ukrainian form.
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