לקראת (likrat)

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Dictionaries tend to favor the spatial definition of לקראת:  The Dvir dictionary says “to meet, towards,” and it mentions that the root is קרא (as in “Hey, you!”).  Sivan and Levenston’s Bantam dictionary also says “towards” but it adds the meanings “for” and “in view of,” taking into account that as the time of an occurrence approaches, it influences our behavior.  We might say we bought a new electric heater לקראת החורף  and mean that we bought it because winter was impending.  On the other hand, we might also say that לקראת החורף we bought a new electric toothbrush.

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איכותי (quality, high-quality)

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If you have a מוצר איכותי there’s nothing wrong with saying you have a quality product.  But as a noun pressed into adjectival service, quality isn’t very versatile.  You can say you have a well-known quality product, but not a quality well-known product.  You can’t throw quality into a list and say your product is convenient, quality, and attractive. 

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Translatable But Debatable - The phrase לסגור חשבון (lisgor heshbon) and its component words

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Einat Schiff wrote an article for Walla! titled רשות השידור נגד קרן נויבך - ציניות מוחלטת על חשבון משלם המיסים and the Jerusalem Post referred to the article as “The IBA against Keren Neubach – total cynicism on the taxpayer’s account.”  No, that should be at the taxpayer’s expense.

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Translatable But Debatable - לוותר¨ (l'vater)

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In English, the "vitoor" words don’t mean quite the same with and without the object.  Giving something up is not exactly the same as giving up.  Conceding something is not exactly the same as conceding.  Yielding something is not exactly the same as yielding.  Without the object, the meaning for those verbs is more extreme.

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Translatable But Debatable - בליין, בילוי, לבלות (balyan, bilui, lvalot)

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The expression מבַלֵי עולם survives from the ancient Jewish sources into the dictionaries, if not into everyday speech, to mean people who waste time or even bring destruction upon the world. These days a little בילוי — a pastime, recreation, entertainment — is widely considered innocent or even necessary in everyday life. 

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Translatable But Debatable - Discussing the Hebrew words l'histayeg and histaygut - להסתייג, הסתייגות

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The ambiguity of הסתייגויות and its common translation “reservations” had its finest hour, I guess, when Ariel Sharon accepted the American road map for the Middle East with fourteen reservations.  That’s not an acceptance, Arab figures are complaining to this day.  Yes it is, Israel says, it just includes reservations.  The ambiguity of “reservations” even allowed Mahmoud Abbas, while complaining about Israel’s response to the road map, to Read More

Translatable But Debatable - The Hebrew verb "l'hishtolel" להשתולל

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Calvin explains that the use of eshtolel’lu, instead of hishtol’lu, is a Chaldean touch, and that since the verb is reflexive, that is to say “acting on one’s self, it has been here rendered by some, despoiled themselves of mind, were mad, furious.”  We are portraying the situation similarly when today we say in slang that someone “lost it.” 

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Translatable but Debatable: The Hebrew words תקין (takin) and תקינות (tkinut)

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The Hebrew said that the mission wasn’t accomplished till the תקינות of the newly developed interfaces was tested.  I didn’t have a word for תקינות.  I suppose it might have sufficed to say “till the interfaces are tested,” jumping straight past the word. 

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Translatable But Debatable - Keruv קירוב

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The word closen means not only “to become close or more close (‘the closening bonds between two countries’) but also “to make close.”  It could work as long as you avoid ambiguity and, as the British say, don’t frighten the horses.

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Translating the Hebrew להבדיל (l'havdil, lehavdil) into English

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I don’t find many dictionary definitions of להבדיל.  Dov Ben Abba’s dictionary in Signet paperback says “not to be mentioned together,” which makes sense — or at least reasonable partial sense, since whenever we say להבדיל we are indeed mentioning things together, while simultaneously we point out that they are not to be compared except in the narrow sense that we intend. 

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Translatable But Debatable - Ga'agu'im

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Nostalgia may be wistfully reflective but is not painfully sad the way געגועים can be.  Are we ever said to be nostalgic over people anyway?  Times and places for sure, but individual people?  I don’t know.  Maybe public figures.

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Translatable But Debatable - קול קורא (kol koreh)

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When a person or a movement presents its principles and encourages the government in particular and the nation in general to recognize their validity, what it has written is a manifesto.  Unfortunately, readers of English are strongly accustomed to seeing the word manifesto preceded by Communist.  And if it isn’t Communist, it’s Unabomber. 

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Translatable But Debatable - Zimun (זימון)

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The word הזמנה is the one that corresponds better to invitation. It’s a notice saying that you will be welcome at the specified place at the specified time, but unlike זימון it implies you are free to never show up.  A זימון may be open to negotiation, but it does not want, and it does not expect, to be disregarded.

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Translatable But Debatable - Are these expressions too Hebrew, or English enough?

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There was a spate of commentary explaining that terrorism is a nuisance but not an existential threat to Israel. Before that, I’d heard only about existentialism. So an existential threat to Israel sounded like a streetful of French intellectuals campaigning to cut off our supply of brie.

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Translatable But Debatable - Minimizing Exposure

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Both חשיפה and exposure are odd concepts in that they are not necessarily affected much by a reversal of directionality.  For example, if a rabbi exposes his sense of humor to his students, he has also exposed his students to his sense of humor and the phrasings differ little in their meaning.  I suppose the difference is in a choice of emphasis:  on the thing that has previously remained in concealment, or on the people who have previously remained unaware.

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Translatable But Debatable - Tofa'ah (תופעה) / Phenomenon

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In English, the word phenomenon is claimed both by scientists who consider that, as in Greek, it means anything that has come into view, and by circus ringmasters who like to reserve it for things they would call phenomenal, while the rest of us are caught in between.  Nachama Kanner wrote in asking about those cases where phenomenon doesn’t quite work as a translation for תופעה.

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Translatable But Debatable - Livui ליווי

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What is the general term that would fit a guy whose function involves no hands-on participation, no hiring, firing, budget-making, imposition of schedules, or issuance of commands, and no PowerPoint presentations, but who nonetheless is supposed to be listened to seriously because he knows the stuff? 

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Translatable But Debatable פינוק Pinuk

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“I decided to pamper Yuval”?  In English it sounds like a bad decision, and it sounds like adopting a practice rather than performing a single action.  Maybe a variation would work — “I decided to pamper Yuval a little.”

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