If you describe an idea or belief as a shibboleth, you mean that it is thought important by a group of people but may be old-fashioned or wrong. It is time to go beyond the shibboleth that conventional forces cannot deter. an old idea, custom, or principle that you think is no longer important or suitable for modern times (used (according to the Bible) by the Gileadite people as a way of recognizing their enemies, who could not pronounce the sh properly)
river, or an ear of corn The tribes living on the east of Jordan, separated from their brethren on the west by the deep ravines and the rapid river, gradually came to adopt peculiar customs, and from mixing largely with the Moabites, Ishmaelites, and Ammonites to pronounce certain letters in such a manner as to distinguish them from the other tribes Thus when the Ephraimites from the west invaded Gilead, and were defeated by the Gileadites under the leadership of Jephthah, and tried to escape by the "passages of the Jordan," the Gileadites seized the fords and would allow none to pass who could not pronounce "shibboleth" with a strong aspirate This the fugitives were unable to do They said "sibboleth," as the word was pronounced by the tribes on the west, and thus they were detected (Judg 12: 1-6) Forty-two thousand were thus detected, and
A word or pronunciation used to distinguish outsiders: originates from the incident described in the Bible - Judges 12: 4-6 (see also Zephaniah 3: 8-9)
A slogan, jargon word, or catchphrase closely associated with a particular group and not used very much, or at all, outside of it. Can also apply to ideas, customs, and uses of language