how to say “human nature” in Hebrew

 

טֶבַע הָאָדָם, הַטֶּבַע הָאֱנוֹשִׁי

 

 
In observance of the Jewish holidays, I took off some time from blogging. Now it’s back to the routine, with a dose of Hebrew that brings themes of the holidays together with themes of the Torah portions being read these weeks by Jews around the world.
 
The word for nature is טֶבַע listen and repeat. As for human nature, Modern Hebrew has two terms:
 
1.
 
טֶבַע הָאָדָם listen and repeat means literally the nature of (the) man
 
For example:
 
הַאִם טֶבַע הָאָדָם נִתָּן לְשִׁנּוּי?
Is human nature (the nature of man) changeable?
 
Although אדם listen and repeat also means human being in the term בֶּן אָדָם listen and repeat, used to refer to both males and females, the term טבע האדם is seen as a bit chauvinistic, with Israelis preferring the second term in this entry.
 
2. 
 
הַטֶּבַע הָאֱנוֹשִׁי listen and repeat means literally human nature, where אנושי listen and repeat is human as an adjective. This is the more politically-correct term.

Take this statement from Haaretz for example:
 

מֶחְקָרִים חֲדָשִׁים מְגַלִּים: הַדִּיאֶטָה נוֹגֶדֶת אֶת הַטֶּבַע הָאֱנוֹשִׁי.

New research reveals: Dieting goes against human nature.

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