how to say “naughty” (in the serious sense) in Hebrew
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This one’s for Lauren, Ulpan La-Inyan‘s administrative assistant and a collaborator in a new translation of the auspicious Yom Kippur prayer, כָּל נִדְרֵי (kohl need-REH-ee).
The Hebrew word עֲבַרְיָנִים (ah-vahr-yah-NEEM) appears in the introductory line to that famous prayer. It is usually translated as criminals, though that translation lacks a certain punch associated culturally with the word.
So let’s take apart the word and see that the root is ע.ב.ר (a.b.r), meaning to pass. The root makes its way into the word עֲבַרְיָן (ah-vahr-YAHN) by virtue of the fact that עבריינים are those who bypass the law.
You likewise may be familiar with the closely-related word עֲבֵרָה (ah-veh-RAH) – crime or transgression.
In today’s Hebrew, the word עבריין tends to refer to those who seem to always get into trouble, as well as those involved in organized crime. Parents might use the term sarcastically when disciplining their children: they use the term not to implicate their children as proper criminals, but rather to call them something roughly equivalent to the English term, “naughty naughty.”
A more salient, less culturally-loaded translation of criminal into Hebrew would be פּוֹשֵׁע (poh-SHEH-ah).
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