A cantor from a synagogue in Nyack, New York, says she’s fond of the expression “the heebie-jeebies” but recently began worrying that it might be anti-Semitic. Did the term “heebie-jeebies” originate as a slur against Jews? The hosts mention a cartoon with the earliest known use of the term. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Heebie-Jeebies”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Sally Neff calling from Nyack, New York.
Well, hello, Sally. What do you do in Nyack?
I’m a cantor.
A cantor. This is…
Tell us what that is.
You sing in temple, right?
Yes, I sing in a synagogue.
Basically, it’s like clergy who’s in charge of music.
Oh, very nice.
And I do a lot of teaching as part of my job.
I always try to help my students become better writers and better speakers.
Right on. So you’re Mishpacha.
Oh, yes.
Wait a second.
My Hebrew is not that good or Yiddish.
What does that mean?
Family.
Oh, there we go.
Family.
All right.
So I was actually at a shiva minion a couple of weeks ago when this word came up, and the word is heebie-jeebies.
Oh, wow.
And a shiva minion is a kind of memorial kind of service.
Right.
Sorry.
After somebody passes away, they have a service at the family’s house for seven days.
And, you know, usually you talk about the person who’s passed, but sometimes conversation does move around, especially when you’re not talking to the primary warner.
And actually the way this came up was one of the women I was talking to said that she felt gyps.
And I said, oh, you know, you really shouldn’t use that word because some people think that it’s related to gypsy and it’s not really nice.
It’s kind of derogatory.
And she said, really?
I never heard that.
You know, I heard that heebie-jeebies is anti-Semitic.
Oh.
And I use the phrase, oh, that gives me the heebie-jeebies all the time.
And as a cantor, I certainly don’t want to be saying something anti-Semitic.
Oh, yeah.
So I went to my favorite word gurus to help me figure this out.
And what did they say?
You’re my favorite word gurus.
Oh, oh, oh.
Oh, well, I’m not really used to that title, but okay, I think I can grow into that.
So the idea here is that somehow the heebie part has something to do with Hebrew.
Maybe the jeebie part has something to do with Jew or Jewish, right?
Right.
And so there’s just a phonetic similarity there, and you think maybe it’s possible, right?
It sounds like it could be.
I hope not, because I like the phrase.
I love it, too.
Oh, that gives me the heebie-jeebies.
It’s such a wonderful expression.
And I can tell you that you’re standing on firm ground, at least etymologically speaking, as far as we know.
It goes back to an old cartoon.
The first reference that we see about heebie-jeebies is in an old cartoon by the same guy who did the Snuffy Smith cartoons.
Did you ever see those?
No.
Yeah, well, it was in the 1920s, and that’s the first reference that we see to this expression.
And there’s really no connection with any kind of anti-Semitism.
No, it’s perfectly fine to say heebie-jeebies.
We should also say, though, that it’s parallel to some similar phrases.
Some of them are less common.
Have you ever heard of somebody saying, oh, I’ve got a case of the whim-whams?
Or the Jimmy Jams or the Jim Jams or the Screaming Mimis?
I haven’t heard those.
Those are all basically the same.
I have a case of the nerves or the jitters or the willies.
You know, my hair is standing up on the back of my neck.
So it’s just nonsense syllables.
Yeah, they are more or less.
And I like these kinds of colorful expressions because, I don’t know, it’s fun to have silly things that come out of our mouths, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah, but Sally, I see where you’re coming from.
Because how strongly did your friend feel about it?
Well, she didn’t feel strongly.
She was more just curious because I had brought up the question of the word she was using.
She said, you know, I was always wondering about, you know, so she didn’t have anything to base it on.
Right, right.
Sally, my advice to you would be to keep using it and then you can just seize on that as a teachable moment.
Fantastic.
You know, if somebody challenges you.
All right.
Well, thanks for your call, Sally.
Thank you so much.
There you go.
Two hosts, three opinions, right?
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Okay, bye-bye.
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