Word Geek Wednesday: Shibboleth

Welcome to Word Geek Wednesday, where we explore words in the context of pop culture! Our word today is...

shib·​bo·​leth /ˈshi-bə-ləth/ (n.) a word, phrase, action, or tradition that distinguishes one group of people from another

The recent Lollapalooza music festival reminded me of our Word of the Day, as it's actually named after a well-known shibboleth! During World War 2, Americans in the Pacific theater would test unidentified persons by asking them to say "lollapalooza". If they couldn't pronounce it correctly (say, with R's instead of L's because they were actually Japanese), well, they'd be dead before the third syllable.

Speaking distinguishing one group from another, it's such a stroke of genius to name an online identity management system as Shibboleth!

Not all shibboleths are discriminating; sometimes it's a quirk of a country's culture. For example, you can tell a lot about a person by how they use the word "salvage"—if something was salvaged in the U.S., it would be a good thing (because it's being rescued), but if you were salvaged in the Philippines, it's a very, very bad thing (because you were executed without due process). And how about the shibboleth of pronouncing the letter "Z" giving away where you're from?

Shibboleths can also be used as a sort of signal to like-minded people that you're "in the know." Like how the words "wibbly wobbly" would sound gibberish to a layman, but you can bet the ears of a Doctor Who fan will prick up!

The word is esoteric enough to sound otherworldly, so it's a pretty cool word to name awesome, unknowable things. In the game Gears of War, the Locust General Karn waded into battle riding a deformed Corpser he named Shibboleth. A gnarly name for such a gnarly dude!

I hope you learned something new today. Now go use shibboleth in everyday conversation! Thanks for reading and stay safe out there.