Entertainment / Literature / Shibboleth: Among linguists, the term refers to any language use that distinguishes between one 'in'-group and another 'out'-group. The term comes from the biblical account of how Israelites would ask suspicious foreigners to say the word 'shibboleth', if the speaker pronounced it 'sibboleth,' marking the talker as an enemy, he or she would be seized and killed. The term often appears in the phrase, 'to speak the shibboleth.'
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Shibboleth Verb Synonyms: password, catchword, catch-phrase, buzz-word, byword, watchword, jargon
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