According to the
Oxford English Dictionary, the word may be an alteration of the endings -
ki or -
ky common in the personal names of
Jews in eastern Europe who immigrated to the
United States in the early 20th century. A variation or expansion of this theory published in
Our Crowd (1967), by
Stephen Birmingham, postulates that the term "kike" was coined as a put-down by the assimilated U.S. Jews from
Germany to identify eastern European and
Russian Jews: "Because many Russian [Jewish] names ended in 'ki', they were called 'kikes'—a German Jewish contribution to the American vernacular. The name then proceeded to be co-opted by non-Jews as it gained prominence in its usage in society, and was later used as a general derogatory slur." The
Encyclopedia of Swearing suggests that
Leo Rosten's suggestion is the most likely. Compounding the mysterious origin of this term, in 1864 in the
United Kingdom the word
ike or
ikey was used as a derogatory term for Jews, which derived from the name "
Isaac", a common Jewish name. ==Usage==