Beyond EnglishJewish lifeMyths & disputes

gabber

Hebrew ḥāḇēr 'companion' passed through Western Yiddish chawwer into Dutch thieves' cant as gabber 'mate', and in 1990s Rotterdam it named a hardcore-techno scene and its fans.

Weakest linkCertain

The story you may have heard

That gabber is the old Dutch or English gabber 'chatterer, mocker' (from gab). EWN rules this out: the word demonstrably came through Bargoens from Western Yiddish, and the late Middle Dutch gabber 'mocker' is a different word.

The road to Dutch

From Yiddish to Rotwelsch

From Dutch to Afrikaans

From Dutch to English

500 BCEBiblical Hebrew

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

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