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Perhaps ironically, that’s not actually what shibboleth means.

• jfengel 2y ago
  "A common or longstanding belief, custom, or catchphrase associated with a particular group, especially one with little current meaning or truth." (Wiktionary). If you mean to restrict it to the Biblical usage of pronunciation, it generalized past that centuries ago.
• olddustytrail 2y ago
  [flagged]
  • dang 2y ago
    Please don't be a jerk on HN, no matter how limited someone's English is or you feel it is. Posts like this only make things worse, whether you're right or not. We've had to ask you this before (e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40979518 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40979518). If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.
    • olddustytrail 2y ago
      Do you honestly think I was the jerk in that conversation, rather than the person saying someone was using a word incorrectly when they weren't? I don't think I've knowingly punched down. Edit: anyway noted. I'll try to be more American (in the old sense; I'm not sure being Trumpian would work well here!)
      • tomhoward 2y ago
        Good on you for being willing to try improving. HN doesn’t really distinguish between “punching down” and “punching up”, and prefers to avoid “punching” at all. The guiding principle to keep top of mind is “intellectual curiosity”. There’s a place for an intellectually curious discussion about the history and present day meaning of the word “shibboleth”, and the way you commented brings that to a screeching halt. And even if someone else seems to be acting like a bit of a jerk in the comments, it doesn’t make it OK to do it too. But as you say, you’ll try to do better which is great.