Meanings
plural shandas · alternative schanda · alternative schande · alternative shande · alternative shonda · alternative shonde
- JewishShame; disgrace.
My parents are Orthodox Jews. To them, intermarriage is considered a shanda.
2015, Eugene Sierras, Beyond El Camino Del Diablo: Beyond the Devil's Highway, →ISBN3 more examples
Oi, it was such a shanda. I should never buy gribenes from a Mohel. It's so chewy.
1993, Randi Mayem Singer, Leslie Dixon, Mrs. Doubtfire, spoken by Daniel (Robin Williams)A shanda is humiliation and embarrassment one's misdeed suffers upon one's family. In our faith, a shanda is a terrible sin.
2011, Teddy Bart, Shadow Seduction, →ISBN, page 171They don't learn about their heritage. They don't learn about Israel. It's a shanda.
2012, Allegra Goodman, Kaaterskill Falls, →ISBN
Origin
- Proto-West Germanic*skandu“shame”
- Old High Germanscanta
- Middle High Germanschande
- Yiddishשאַנדע
- Englishshanda
From Yiddish שאַנדע (shande), from Middle High German schande, schante, from Old High German scanta, skanta, from Proto-West Germanic *skandu (“shame”). Doublet of shand.
More words from Yiddish, Middle High German, Old High German
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
shanda. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shanda
“shanda.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shanda. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shanda,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shanda.
Source: shanda on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.