kosher = according to prescribed rules

[Joel S. Berson]

I can take "kosher" as "according to the prescribed (approved,
sanctioned) rules", which can be dietary, moral, or legal.  But
perhaps the house where four Muslims live should be described as a
"halal" frat house, where alcohol is prohibited.  (It's kosher for
Jews to drink.)  And the existence of a frat house where there's no
alcohol is certainly news.

Joel

At 8/11/2012 06:18 PM, victor steinbok wrote:
>This doesn't sound quite right. The most common use of Kosher in
>non-Jewish context implies something like "above board" (especially in
>police-speak)--matching the "Correct, genuine, legitimate"--and
>"approved" or "sanctioned"(presumably by some authority, but this can
>be left vague). But the meaning here appears to be closer to "strict".
>There is an overarching category of "following rules", but that seems
>too broad.
>
>VS-)
>
>On Sat, Aug 11, 2012 at 3:43 PM, Benjamin Barrett
><gogaku at ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >
> >
> > In today's episode of "This American Life" =
> > (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/471/the-convert),
> > =
> > there is a discussion about a house where four Muslims live, and a =
> > comment that it's like a "kosher" frat house because they didn't drink =
> > alcohol.
> >
> > The OED has "Correct, genuine, legitimate," but this seems to mean "in =
> > accordance with (Muslim) rules" or probably more specifically, =
> > "excluding prohibited activity." I think this use applies to vegetarian =
> > food in a vegetarian household, etc.
> >
> > Wiktionary (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kosher) has "In accordance =
> > with standards or usual practice," which is closer, but still seems =
> > slightly off.
> >
> > I did a search on the ADS archives and did not see any mention of this =
> > meaning, though I looked only at the bits presented in the search =
> > results.
> >
> > The episode also has "surveil," which the OED covers, but was new to me.
> >
> > Benjamin Barrett
> > Seattle, WA
>
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