• parev,parve

Borrowed fromYiddishפּאַרעוו,פּאַרעווע(parev, pareve), of uncertain origin. Suggestions include:

• Perhaps fromMiddle High Germanbar(“bare, naked”), fromOld High Germanbar, and thus cognate withEnglishbare.^[1]
• Perhaps from a WestSlavic source such asCzechpárový(“occurring in pairs”), because according to Jewish dietary laws, meat and milk cannot be combined, but as pareve food contains neither, it can be paired with either meat dishes or milk dishes.^[2][3]

• (Received Pronunciation)IPA^(key):/ˈpɑː.ɹə.və/

  • Audio(Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American)IPA^(key):/ˈpɑɹəvə/,/ˈpɑɹəv/,/ˈpɑɹɪv/,/ˈpɑɹv/
• Hyphenation:pa‧re‧ve

pareve (notcomparable)

1. (Jewishlaw) Of food: that has nomeat ormilk in any form as an ingredient.

   My mom made apareve casserole with soy hot dogs.

   • 1970,Statutory Instruments, London:Her Majesty's Stationery Office,→OCLC, page4249:

     "Parev ice" includes Kosher ice and means the substance intended for sale for human consumption which resembles ice-cream and which— / (a) is usually known asParev ice or Kosher ice, and / (b) contains no milk or milk derivatives,[…]

   • 1990, Bonne Rae London, “Introduction to Kashruth: Why Keep Kosher?”, inHi-tech Jewish Cooking: Recipes for the Microwave, Processor, Blender and Crock Pot, New York, N.Y.: Shapolsky Publishers,→ISBN, page 4:

     There are on the market many items which resemble such dairy products as coffee cream, sour cream and whipped cream both in taste and appearance but actually arepareve. These are customarily served in the original container to show that the product ispareve despite the dairy appearance.

   • 1991, Hayim Halevy Donin, “The Dietary Laws: A Diet for the Soul”, inTo Be a Jew: A Guide to Jewish Observance in Contemporary Life: Selected and Compiled from the Shulhan Arukh and Responsa Literature, and Providing a Rationale for the Laws and the Traditions, New York, N.Y.:Basic Books,→ISBN, page113:

     A food product containing neither meat nor milk, or derived from either isneutral. The Yiddish wordparev (parve) or the Hebrew wordstam is used to describe this third category. The neutral (parev) category includes (1) everything which grows from the soil: vegetables, fruits, nuts, coffee, spices, sugar, salt, (2) all kosher fish, (3) eggs, and (4) items manufactured from chemicals.Parev foods may be eaten or cooked with either dairy or meat products.

   • 2002 July, Doniel Yehuda Neustadt,דיוני הלכה[Diyune Halakhah]: The Weekly Halachah Discussion: A Review of Practical Halachic Topics Related to the Parashah of the Week, 2nd rev. edition, Jerusalem, Nanuet, N.Y.:Feldheim Publishers,→ISBN, page205:

     After eatingparve food cooked in a meat pot or cut with a meat knife, does one need to wait six hours to eat dairy?Parve food that was cooked in a meat pot [but without any meat in the pot, such as fish cooked in a meat pot] does not require a wait of six hours before dairy may be eaten.[…] [Note that our discussion here applies only to dairy food eatenafterparve food, nottogether with it.]

   • 2009, Zushe Yosef Blech,Kosher Food Production, 2nd edition, Hoboken, N.J.:Wiley-Blackwell,→ISBN, page201:

     From the marketing perspective, most manufacturers would prefer that products not inherently dairy (such as cheese snacks) enjoy aPareve status. In many situations, however, considerations other than the status of ingredients may make it necessary to confer a Dairy (or Dairy Equipment) status to otherwise potentiallyPareve products. Examples of such situations may include: / The equipment used to cook or heat the inherentlyPareve items is also used to process dairy products. In such situations, the equipment may require a Kosherization from dairy toPareve productions, a process which may prove impractical.

   • 2011, Avrom Honig, “Bubbe”[pseudonym], “Quick Notes on Keeping Kosher”, inFeed Me Bubbe: Recipes and Wisdom from America's Favorite Online Grandmother, Philadelphia, Pa.:Running Press,→ISBN:

     In true kosher cooking, meat and dairy should never be combined.Pareve margarine is made up of 100 percent vegetable oil. Dairy margarine has milk as one of the ingredients plus perhaps added vegetable oil. This is why when cooking a meat or dairy meal, if the recipe requires butter or margarine, I substitute it withpareve margarine.

2. (figuratively, by extension)Neutral,bland,inoffensive.
   • 1994,Paul Wilkes, quoting Jay Rosenbaum,And They Shall Be My People: An American Rabbi and His Congregation, New York, N.Y.:Atlantic Monthly Press,→ISBN:

     Judaism inCranford [New Jersey] waspareve, neither milk nor meat; it had no edge to it. I didn't see this for my life. I was idealistic. I wanted to deal with issues of faith and morality, and all they were worried about were their High Holiday seats. But then I found out I really liked the contact I had with people's day-to-day problems.

   • [2001,Leo Rosten,Lawrence Bush, “pareve”, inThe New Joys of Yiddish, New York, N.Y.:Three Rivers Press,→ISBN, page 281, footnote:

     Just askosher is used as slang for "legitimate" or "a-okay",pareve has slang connotations, too. Apareve person is wishy-washy and vague; apareve deed or decision is "neither fish nor fowl," of no great consequence, middle-of-the-roadish.]

   • 2008, Carol K. Ingall, Jeffrey S. Kress, “Nurturing Jewish Values”, in Roberta Louis Goodman, Paul A. Flexner, Linda Dale Bloomberg, editors,What We Now Know about Jewish Education, Los Angeles, Calif.:Torah Aura Productions,→ISBN, page291:

     By values we don't mean the personal preferences that made values clarification strategies of the seventies and eighties sopareve; we mean traditional Jewish virtues,middot orma'alot.

• In Yiddish,פּאַרעוו(parev) is thepredicative form andפּאַרעווע(pareve) theattributive form of the adjective. Some speakers familiar with Yiddish use this distribution in English as well, e.g.,My mom made apareve casserole butThis casserole isparev.

•  pareve on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• repave