Word to the Wise: Shibboleth
by ETR (04/24/2008)
"Shibboleth" (SHIB-uh-lith) - from the Hebrew - is a word, saying, custom, or belief identified with a group or cause.
Example (as used by Elizabeth Austin in U.S. News & World Report): "In the late ’60s, however, the loud, open use of the ‘F’ word became a true shibboleth, dividing the student radicals from the Establishment ‘pigs’ they delighted in tweaking."