Etymology

kibitz

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Today it means: To make small talk or idle chatter. Full definition →

Yiddish קיבעצן ← German Kiebitz ← Middle High German gibiz
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The story

  1. Middle High German · derived fromgibiz“plover”
  2. German · derived fromKiebitz“lapwing”
  3. Yiddish · borrowed fromקיבעצן
  4. English todaykibitz

From Yiddish קיבעצן (kibetsn), cognate to German kiebitzen (“to look on”), from German Kiebitz (“lapwing”), from Middle High German gibiz (“plover”), imitative of its cry. Compare peewit.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.