Translatable but Debatable – בסימן b'siman

by Mark L. Levinson

Recently I asked the Academy of the Hebrew Language whether they had anything to say about translating the word “blockchain” into Hebrew.  They said that these days they don’t have any active committee in charge of such words.  A block can be a goosh, they said, so a blockchain can be a sharsherret goosheem.  That’s worse than just using the word “blockchain” in Hebrew as is.  At least “blockchain” can be conjugated in Hebrew, so we can talk, for example, about the bleekchoon (blockchainization) of the diamond trade.  Although it’s ugly.  The Academy used to offer some nice words in the IT field.  I wonder who drank up their budget.

Someone explained to me that in Hebrew the use of “drinking” to mean swiping someone else’s resources is based on an old army excuse for not carrying a full canteen.  It’s not that I didn’t want the weight of a full load, officer.  My canteen was full, but somebody drank from it.

The expression has popped up in English where news regarding the 2019 Israeli elections is translated.  “Netanyahu hasn’t learned the lesson of five months ago, that drinking up too many of his so-called natural partners’ votes can hurt him,” said a Jerusalem Post article for example.  But there’s a better expression in English, and it’s been in use since well before this election year.  When Al Gore was running against George W. Bush, “Ralph Nader was siphoning votes from Gore,” a 2004 book by William Saletan notes.  Siphoning is a much different metaphor; it was a way of swiping gasoline from someone else’s car, back before gas tanks came with locks.  But I’d say it expresses the same idea as “drinking” does in Hebrew, and Saletan is far from being the only writer who’s used it.

So as I was saying, the budget for language doesn’t seem to be sufficing these days.  There isn’t a Hebrew word for “Taser” either, and what’s worse, I’ve heard two professional announcers in the Israeli media pronouncing the word to rhyme with “miser” rather than with “blazer.”  I hope it isn’t a siman laba’ot,  an omen.

I’m not sure where the phrase siman laba’ot originated, but it seems to be post-Biblical. The LearnHebrew.org website says:

"Siman" is one of the many words Hebrew adapted from Greek ("semeion") and it has many different meanings: In the Talmud it is often used as sign or proof (Baba Metziah, Yevamot 79a) as well as a sign of an animal being kosher (Chulin 27b) etc... It can also be a signal: "Tesamen li" (give me a signal)...

As for the Greek, the definition at BibleStudyTools.com starts:

1 a sign, mark, token

a. that by which a person or a thing is distinguished from others and is known

b. a sign, prodigy, portent, i.e. an unusual occurrence, transcending the common course of nature

I don’t have a dictionary that specifically mentions the special usage — maybe because to Hebrew speakers, it doesn’t stand out as special — of b’siman (pronounced b’see-MAHN, if you’ve read this far despite not knowing much Hebrew) in a headline like this one:

‘שנת הלימודים תשע"ט נפתחה בסימן 'אחדות ישראל
(The 5779 school year opens b’siman “The Oneness of Israel”)

Or this one:

היום הבינלאומי למאבק בלהט”בפוביה בסימן סולידריות עם הקהילה הגאה בטורקיה 
(The International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia b’siman of Solidarity with the Turkish Gay Community)

Those events seem to have a title and a subtitle.  Along with their intrinsic purpose, they are dedicated additionally, in spirit, to a specific theme or sub-theme or principle.  It seems to be a little like winning one for the Gipper.  You’re in the stadium to win the game anyway, but this instance is to be filed metaphysically under a particular rubric that you’ve chosen.

You want to salute, highlight, give a nod or a bow to the thing you’re championing.  But my feeling is that the expression b’siman doesn’t exactly focus on you as the active party directing the spotlight, it’s more a matter of positioning yourself under a certain guiding star.  Maybe I’m influenced by the expression siman tov umazal tov, where the auspicious sign is paired with the favorable constellation.

As the Greeks had their semeion, the Romans had their signum, the military standard, and maybe that’s the most accurate interpretation of the b’siman metaphor. The Ancient History Encyclopedia says:

The Roman Standard (Latin: Signum or Signa Romanum) was a pennant, flag, or banner, suspended or attached to a staff or pole, which identified a Roman legion (infantry) or Equites (cavalry). 

The word “standard” is unhelpfully ambiguous in English, but we can speak of the school year opening under the “banner” of a united Israel or a community marching under a “banner” of solidarity.  As part of the formal name of an event, I’m not sure it’s quite as successful.

Any comments on b’siman, or blockchain or Tasers, are welcome in the space below.  If there’s another word or phrase that you believe deserves a column, please write to me at whystyle@elephant.org.il. An index of words and phrases discussed so far is here.