how to say “behind us” in Hebrew
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מאחורינו-1.m4a” /]מֵאֲחוֹרֵינוּ
In Israel, the Jewish holiday season is behind us (outside of Israel there’s one more day).
So you might hear Israelis say:
[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מאחורינו-2.m4a” /]החגים מאחורינו, חוזרים לשגרה.
The holidays are behind us, (we’re) going back to the routine.
מאחורינו[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מאחורינו-1.m4a” /] comes from the root א.ח.ר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מאחורינו-3.m4a” /], which means behind both in time and in space, yielding words such לאחר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מאחורינו-4.m4a” /] – to be late and our word מאחורינו, literally, from our backside (even more literally, from our backsides).
אחר[audioclip url=”https://archive.ulpan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/מאחורינו-5.m4a” /] meaning other also comes from the same root. This rather abstract word probably (BDB) originated with the very visible situation of the other coming from behind.
