לִשְׂמוֹחַ Today was Purim in Jerusalem, so I’m just getting around to the word of the day now. You’ve all got the benefit of reading the product of my imagination as I’m sobering up – almost there, but not quite. In English, emotional reactions are typically adjectives – such as angry and…
מְבַדֵּחַ There are a few words for entertaining in Hebrew. There’s מְבַדֵּר (meh-vah-DEHR), coming from the more common word, בִּדּוּר (bee-DOOR). There’s מַצְחִיק (mahts-KHEEK), meaning funny. There’s מְשַׁעְשֵׁע (meh-shah-ah-SHEH-ah), meaning amusing (I did an entry on משעשע this past January). Here’s a word that doesn’t get used as often as the others… except for Purim. On Israeli radio…
Last night 150 refugees were deported back to Sudan from Israel. The phrase for illegal in Hebrew is בִּלְתִּי חֻקִּי (beel-TEE khoo-KEE). The word בלתי functions in Hebrew in a similar way to how the prefixes in- and un- function in English – such as in impossible – בלתי אֶפְשָׁרִי (beel-TEE ef-shah-REE) – and בלתי נִשְׁכַּח (beel-TEE neesh-KAHKH)….
לְמִידָה מֵרָחוֹק Distance learning has become quite an industry. In Hebrew, it’s לְמִידָה מֵרָחוֹק (le-mee-DAH me-rah-KHOHK). Literally, that’s learning from afar. We use למידה as opposed to לִמּוּד (lee-MOOD), which means teaching. We at Ulpan La-Inyan are offering our renowned classes to distance learners. If you’d like to take one of our courses, fill…
סְעָרָה If you’re living on the east coast of the United States, or perhaps in Norway or London or Brazil… you know quite well what a storm is. In Israel we almost forgot this year – that is, until Friday when it started pouring in Tel Aviv. The Hebrew word for storm is…
I’m reading a book written by a cousin of my grandmother’s, who was among those in Budapest that helped rescue Jews during the Holocaust. One of the missions he participated in was smuggling Jews across the Romanian border to safety, on their way to אֶרֶץ יִשְׂרָאֵל (EH-rets yees-rah-EL) – the Land of Israel. …
To get excited in Hebrew is לְהִתְרַגֵּש (le-heet-rah-GESH). It comes from the root ר.ג.ש (r.g.sh), which means, in Modern Hebrew, emotion. The word להתרגש falls into the התפעל (heet-pah-EHL) verb pattern. To say that something is exciting or stirring of emotion, you’d use the word מְרַגֵּש (me-rah-GESH). For example, a couple of the songs I played on…
If you know some Hebrew, you more than likely know the word for light – אוֹר (ohr) – especially if you’ve been following Ktzat Ivrit for the last couple of weeks. Using the three-letter word אור as a verbal root, א.ו.ר (a.w.r), the word for to light up or to illuminate is created: לְהָאִיר (le-hah-EER). This…
כבאי/ת Following yesterday’s entry on heroes – גִּבּוֹרִים (ghee-boh-REEM), today I’ll refer to the bulk of those who displayed גְּבוּרָה (ge-voo-RAH- heroism) by name. A firefighter is usually referred to as a כַּבַּאי (kah-BAH-ee), though a woman in כַּבָּאוּת (kah-bah-OOT), fire fighting, is referred to as a כַּבַּאִית (kah-bah-EET). כבאית is also the name for…
Given the events of the weekend over here in Israel (see articles in Hebrew and in English), as well as the spirit of חֲנֻכָּה (khah-noo-KAH) – Hanukkah – I thought it appropriate to introduce the Hebrew word for heroism: גְּבוּרָה (ge-voo-RAH). A hero is a גִּבּוֹר (ghee-BOHR), while a heroine is a גִּבּוֹרָה (ghee-boh-RAH). The…
If you’ve had even a little exposure to the Hebrew language, chances are you’ve come across the word for light – אוֹר (ohr). אור is another big theme of חֲנֻכָּה (khah-noo-KAH), so I thought it appropriate for today. But it’s less likely you know the word for lighting, as in, “This living room has…