As the champion high-jumper clears the bar, the sportscaster cries out:  איזה ביצוע! — which is to say, what a thing-doing.  The English language has some theoretically fine translations for ביצוע, but connotations are a problem.  You could say what an accomplishment, but that would express the connotation that he did something difficult, not that he did it well or elegantly.  

This series of columns will be presenting one hard-to-translate Hebrew word at a time for discussion, and we’ll start with ביצוע (or לבצע).

You’re encouraged to add your comments at the end of the column, but please stick to the word currently under discussion.  One word will likely remind you of another, but if you’d like to discuss another word, please write to me at Elephant — whystyle@elephant.org.il — and I’ll present it with due credit in a future column.  That way, we can not only conduct a nicely focused discussion but also leave behind a useful archive for future reference, one word at a time.