[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/בדיכאון-1.m4a” /]בְּדִכָּאוֹן When I was in graduate school for psychology, whenever I would read about a psychiatric disorder, I would start to see the symptoms in myself. If I was learning about paranoid schizophrenia, I would start imagining that people were stalking me. If it was anxiety, I’d get jittery. And when we learned about depression, my life would…
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/אדיבות-#.m4a” /]אֲדִיבוּת The word אדיב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/אדיבות-#.m4a” /] – courteous comes to Hebrew via the Arabic word أديب[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/אדיבות-#.m4a” /] (adeeb), referring to a scholar, presumably a person of manners. When Eliezer Ben Yehuda coined this term, he must have had in mind the word נדיב[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/אדיבות-#.m4a” /] – generous, first appearing in Biblical Hebrew….
Perhaps you know the Hebrew word for dangerous – מְסוּכָּן (me-soo-KAHN). Likewise, the word for danger itself is סַכָּנָה (sah-kah-NAH). The word for risk comes from the same root – ס.כ.נ (s.k.n): סִכּוּן (see-KOON). Radio-show lineup I’ve got my radio show of Israeli music explained at noon today (as every week), on RustyMike…
מוֹקֵד חֵרוּם Can’t read Hebrew yet? מֶרְכָּז is the better-known word for center. Its root is ר.כ.ז (r.k.z) meaning concentration: a מרכז is a place where people or things gather inside of it, such as: מֶרְכַּז הָעִיר the city center and מֶרְכַּז רְפוּאִי medical center Its synonym, מוֹקֵד ,…
Can’t read Hebrew yet? לַעֲקוֹף In my native California, the left lane of the freeway is the fast lane, and that’s what I once assumed was true in Israel as well. But when I started having people drive up right behind me and flashing their high beams, I inquired and discovered…
דִּמְדּוּמִים, בֵּין הָעַרְבַּיִם Can’t read Hebrew yet? That curious time between sunset and nightfall – also technically between dawn and sunrise – is called twilight – between light. Such a time of day causes confusion – is it day or night? Is it light or dark? Can I trust my eyesight while…