• Hanukkah •
Printable Version Pronunciation: hah-nê-kê • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 
The season of Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights. It celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians, who had captured Jerusalem, and the rededication of the second Temple of Jerusalem (164 BC). The Syrians had defiled the Temple and left only one bottle of holy oil. That oil, however, miraculously lasted for 8 days. So, Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days by lighting one candle in the menorah (pictured on the left) each evening.
Notes: Today's Good Word is also spelled Chanukah (among 12 others) but our spelling has become the standard. Currently on the Web, it is used 25 million times while Chanukah appears only 5 million times. Whichever way you spell it, you can find out more about it by clicking here for the History Channel's enlightening 4-minute video history of this holiday.
In Play: Today's very Good Word is the English rendition of Hebrew khanukkah "consecration" from hanakh "he trained, dedicated". This verb comes from the noun hekh "palate", which gave the verb the original meaning of "he rubbed the palate of a child with chewed dates", something that was done long ago during the instruction of children to remind them that learning is sweet. The past participle, hanoch "dedicated" was also used as a name, Hanoch, which the Greeks and Romans interpreted as Enoch.
Word History: Today's very Good Word is the English rendition of Hebrew khanukkah "consecration" from hanakh "he trained, dedicated". This verb comes from the noun hekh "palate", which gave the verb the original meaning of "he rubbed the palate of a child with chewed dates", something that was done long ago during the instruction of children to remind them how sweet learning is. The past participle, hanoch "dedicated" was also used as a name, Hanoch, which the Greeks and Romans interpreted as Enoch.
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