how to say “to conquer” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכבוש-1.m4a” /]לִכְבּוֹשׁ
To conquer – whether land or one’s own desires – is לכבוש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכבוש-1.m4a” /] in Hebrew.
As Ben Zoma taught:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכבוש-2.m4a” /]איזהו גיבור? הכובש את יצרו. (אבות פרק ד’)
Who is a hero? He who restrains himself (conquers his inclination). (Ethics of the Fathers, Chapter 4)
That which is conquered is כבוש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכבוש-3.m4a” /], so that one might have the less-desirable רגשות כבושים[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכבוש-4.m4a” /] – pent-up (conquered) emotions.
Since Word War II, conquering land became unfashionable. Thus כיבוש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכבוש-5.m4a” /], meaning occupation (not in the employment sense) took on quite a negative connotation. Thus one might also talk about שטח כבוש[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/לכבוש-6.m4a” /] – occupied territory.
לכבוש is an active-simple verb, which in addition to to conquer means to pickle.
