Chutzpah chutzpah is "chuzpe". Chutzpah Chutzpah () is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. It derives from the Hebrew word "" (), meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity". Thus the original Yiddish word has a strongly negative connotation but the form which entered English through Ameridish has taken on a broader meaning, having been popularized through vernacular use in film, literature, and television. The word is sometimes interpreted—particularly in business parlance—as meaning the amount of courage, mettle or ardor that an individual has. In Hebrew, "chutzpah" is used indignantly, to describe someone who has overstepped the boundaries of accepted
Yiddish phonology Yiddish. Yiddish deaffricates the Middle High German voiceless labiodental affricate to initially (as in "funt"; though this pronunciation is also quasi-standard throughout northern and central Germany); /pf/ surfaces as an unshifted medially or finally (as in and ). Additionally, final voiced stops appear in Standard Yiddish but not Northern Standard German. Yiddish phonology There is significant phonological variation among the various Yiddish dialects. The description that follows is of a modern Standard Yiddish that was devised during the early 20th century and is frequently encountered in pedagogical contexts. As in the Slavic languages with which Yiddish was long in contact