sheitel

English

A woman wearing a sheitel

Etymology

From Yiddish שייטל (sheytl), cognate to German Scheitel (“parting”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈʃaɪtəl/, /ˈʃeɪtəl/

Noun

sheitel (plural sheitels)

1. (Judaism) A wig worn by married Orthodox Jewish women.

   Coordinate terms: shpitzel, tichel

   • 2006, Howard Jacobson, Kalooki Nights, Vintage, published 2007, page 196:

     I keep wanting to put her in a sheitel, the wig that every Orthodox Jewish wife is supposed to wear in order to prevent a man not her husband from lusting after her in his heart.

   • 2022, Richard Thompson Ford, Dress Codes […] , Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 288:

     Many even have their sheitel professionally styled: according to the New York Times, a Madison Avenue salon that specializes in sheitel grooming charges at least $600 for the service: […]

2. (Polari) A wig (of any kind).
   • 1997, James Gardiner, Who's a Pretty Boy Then?, page 137:

     Will you take a varder at the cartz on the feely-omi in the naf strides: the one with the bona blue ogles polarying the omi-palone with a vogue on and a cod sheitel.

Translations

wig worn by married orthodox Jewish women

• Hebrew: פֵּאָה (he) f (pe'á)
• Yiddish: שייטל n (sheytl)

Anagrams

• Sheltie, Thieles, sheltie