how to say “to badger” in Hebrew
לַחְפּוֹר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לחפור-1.mp3″ /]
This one’s for Zeev.
Here’s an expression I thought was authentically Israeli, until I looked it up and found that the source is English and possibly other languages.
The simple verb לחפור[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לחפור-1.mp3″ /] means literally to dig, but figuratively it’s one of the things that the Modern Israeli version of a Yente does: ask questions ad nauseum about a topic, beat a topic to death. For those who commit this act and even take pride in it, לחפור can also have the positive connotation of getting to the bottom of the matter.
For example:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לחפור-2.mp3″ /]היא חפרה לי כל הערב על ענייני דת.
She badgered me the whole evening about religious matters.
Note that the verb לחפור is followed by לי[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לחפור-3.mp3″ /] or another declension of -ל[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לחפור-4.mp3″ /] – to.
When I looked up לחפור in Morfix, I found the online dictionary translating it as to badger. And a badger is an animal that digs a lot – in fact, according to Wikipedia, the name of the animal may come from the French word bêcheur – a digger.
What do we call such a person who likes לחפור? A חפרן[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לחפור-5.mp3″ /] if he’s a male, or a חפרנית[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לחפור-6.mp3″ /] if she’s a female.
