How do you spell Yiddish word that sounds like "HUTSPA"

Hello gas-ga,

The correct spelling of the Yiddish word is CHUTZPAH but another
variant is hutzpah.


From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

One entry found for chutzpah.
Main Entry: chutz•pah  
Function: noun
Etymology: Yiddish khutspe, from Late Hebrew huspAh
Date: 1892
: supreme self-confidence : NERVE, GALL

One entry found for hutzpah.
variant of Chutzpah

Source:  Merriam-Webster Dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary


According to Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition of 1995 the
correct spelling is chutzpah and also hutzpah.
NOUN: The state or quality of being impudent or arrogantly
self-confident:
http://www.bartleby.com/62/11/C0251100.html


According to the Collins English Dictionary the correct spelling is :
chutzpah or hutzpah [xutsp ] 
n. Informal. shameless audacity; impudence.
[from Yiddish]
http://www.wordreference.com/English/definition.asp?en=chutzpah


Additional information that may interest you:


Yiddish & the Law

“Searching the MEGA file in LEXIS reveals that "chutzpah" (sometimes
also spelled "chutzpa," "hutzpah," or "hutzpa") has appeared in 112
reported [judicial] cases. Curiously, all but eleven of them have been
filed since 1980. There are two possible explanations for this. One is
that during the last thirteen years there has been a dramatic increase
in the actual amount of chutzpah in the United States--or at least in
the U.S. legal system.”
http://www.haruth.com/YSyiddishinLaw.html


Search Criteria: Chutzpah, Hutzpah


I hope you find this helpful.

---

Clarification of Answer by bobbie7-ga on 23 Dec 2002 10:47 PST

Hello again,
Did you want the spelling with the Hebrew Characters?
Thanks
--Bobbie7-ga

Yiddish is usually written in Hebrew characters, so any English
spelling would be an approximation.

For what it's worth, here's a picture that has the Hebrew spelling
(chutzpah is actually a Hebrew word incorporated into Yiddish) --

http://www.tam.co.il/gifs1122000/sport3.gif
(Of the two words in this gif, it's the one on the right.)

I chose a picture of text instead of text itself, so you can see it
without changing your browser's settings to Hebrew.

-- ravuri-ga