Jewish lifeMyths & disputes

cabal

The same word as Kabbalah: 'secret lore' became, in French and English, 'a secret group plotting together' — decades before the five ministers of Charles II whose initials supposedly spell it.

Weakest linkCertain

The story you may have heard

That cabal is an acronym of Clifford, Arlington, Buckingham, Ashley and Lauderdale, Charles II's ministers (1667–73). The word was already in English decades earlier; the initials were a contemporary pun that only made it famous.

The road to English

From Middle French to French, German

From French to Dutch

300 CEMishnaic Hebrew

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

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