Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who performs circumcision on a Jewish male as a religious rite.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A circumciser; the officiating rabbi who is specially qualified to perform the operation of circumcision.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Judaism The person who performs the circumcision in a Jewish bris

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Mishnaic Hebrew môhēl, active participle of māhal, to circumcise, from Aramaic məhal, by-form of Biblical Hebrew māl (perhaps originally “to remove the front”), perhaps from môl, in front; see ℵwl in Semitic roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Hebrew, possibly via Yiddish

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Examples

  • And all the family and many close friends were there to witness it: grandparents on both sides, relatives, friends -- everyone was there to watch the rabbi, a certified surgeon, called the mohel, perform the cut, the holy cut, while saying prayers in a ritual tracing back five millennia to that day Abraham made his covenant with the one and only God.

    Lanny Davis: Love of A Grandchild, the Pain of the Bris Lanny Davis 2010

  • And all the family and many close friends were there to witness it: grandparents on both sides, relatives, friends -- everyone was there to watch the rabbi, a certified surgeon, called the mohel, perform the cut, the holy cut, while saying prayers in a ritual tracing back five millennia to that day Abraham made his covenant with the one and only God.

    Love of A Grandchild, the Pain of the Bris 2010

  • And all the family and many close friends were there to witness it: grandparents on both sides, relatives, friends -- everyone was there to watch the rabbi, a certified surgeon, called the mohel, perform the cut, the holy cut, while saying prayers in a ritual tracing back five millennia to that day Abraham made his covenant with the one and only God.

    Lanny Davis: Love of A Grandchild, the Pain of the Bris 2010

  • And all the family and many close friends were there to witness it: grandparents on both sides, relatives, friends -- everyone was there to watch the rabbi, a certified surgeon, called the mohel, perform the cut, the holy cut, while saying prayers in a ritual tracing back five millennia to that day Abraham made his covenant with the one and only God.

    Lanny Davis: Love of A Grandchild, the Pain of the Bris 2009

  • A mohel is the person who performs ritual circumcisions, and Spielberg meant that Joan Crawford had done this for him—symbolically, of course.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • A mohel is the person who performs ritual circumcisions, and Spielberg meant that Joan Crawford had done this for him—symbolically, of course.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • A mohel is the person who performs ritual circumcisions, and Spielberg meant that Joan Crawford had done this for him—symbolically, of course.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • A mohel is the person who performs ritual circumcisions, and Spielberg meant that Joan Crawford had done this for him—symbolically, of course.

    Not the Girl Next Door Charlotte Chandler 2008

  • This is done by a special rabbi, called a mohel (pronounced moyel) and is done in a ceremony, usually in the home, with lots of relatives, and is vaguely analogous to a christening.

    Printing: Only in New York; These Circumcisions REALLY Suck 2006

  • This is done by a special rabbi, called a mohel (pronounced moyel) and is done in a ceremony, usually in the home, with lots of relatives, and is vaguely analogous to a christening.

    OpEdNews - Diary: Only in New York; These Circumcisions REALLY Suck 2006

Comments

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  • See bris and brisket. Also RabbiT.

    November 3, 2007