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Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
shivah

seven days of mourning in Jewish religious custom, 1892, from Hebrew shibhah "seven," short for shibh'ath yeme ha'ebhel "the seven days of mourning."

Wiktionary
shivah

n. (alternative spelling of shiva English)

WordNet
shivah

n. (Judaism) a period of seven days of mourning after the death of close relative; "the family is sitting shiva" [syn: shiva, shibah]

Usage examples of "shivah".

Yes, Brice Mack reflected solemnly, running his tongue over his teeth, cleansing them of the acrid taste of coffee, Momma sat shivah for Poppa, as he had sat shivah for Momma.

There would be a Times obituary for him, one of considerable length and detail, no doubt, but possessing none of the passion and rending torment of a shivah to mark his passage from life.

Though shivah, mourners were to be relieved of such tasks as preparing meals.

Alone, sitting shivah on a pair of wooden crates dug from a cupboard, they hardly discerned between day and night.

During the seven days of shivah mourners sit on stools that are lower than any other furniture in the house.

On the last day of their sitting shivah Laura went to the door at the sound of the bell.

The whole week they were sitting shivah, no newspapers came into the apartment.

Because if she comes over here and sees this, she is just liable to pull the trigger and blow off the back of my head, and Sarah will be sitting shivah for a week.

I spent a few hours walking in the rain, and periodically I stopped at one trailer or another, participated in one shivah or another, and at each place I picked up another bit of news.

It was more like a hybrid between sitting shivah and attending an Irish wake.

A couple of years ago a friend of the family became a Christian, and I thought my parents would sit shivah for him on the day he was baptized.

It took Jane ten minutes to navigate the aisles and find three cushions that looked wide enough and thick enough that they might work for sitting shivah, and when she returned to Charlie&rsquo.