I got a carbon copy of an e-mail today from a woman who is supposedly religious (but who is not Jewish) that was primarily addressed to a man who is a Christian. It was an angry e-mail, and the woman called the man "poison" and a "backstabber." But she also said, referring to this man, "you are traife,"
mentioning that (she thought) the word was Yiddish.

I couldn't find this word "traife" in any of the on-line dictionaries I usually use, and could not even find it in the brief Yiddish dictionary that's included with my Webster's Unabridged.

Can anyone tell me what it means exactly? And do you have an on-line source for the definition you can recommend? I know it means "non-kosher" when applied to food, but does it have a broader meaning?

Does it make sense to call a person "traife"? Is that like calling him a dirty, filthy b*$tard? One webpage I saw had someone say that the word really meant "carrion," so is it like calling someone a vulture or jackal or something like that?

Just curious.

treif or trayf or treyf

The spelling varies because it's transliterated from the Hebrew. It means unclean and refers to foods that are not Kosher. I've never heard it used to refer to people, although I'm sure it could be used in a derogatory sense.

Kinda like 'kike' then?

Amy has the idea. It simply means non-kosher or unfit to eat, for a Jew, whose standards are a little higher than that of others. If applied to a person I suppose it is simply being used metaphorically, and would mean unfit to associate with.

Why a non-jew would use this term to describe another non-jew, is beyond me.

Kinda like 'kike' then?

No. That is a derogatory term for a Jew. As others have said, treif simply means non-kosher. I agree that it is a strange term to use for a person.

I tend to think that she was using it wrong.

Why a non-jew would use this term to describe another non-jew, is beyond me.
We could always blame it on linguistic idiocy. Agnostic to his athiest friend, "You're a blasphemer!"

maybe she had a hebrew word of the day calendar and she is trying to use the new words she has learned.