Hebrew words I really miss in English..

Generally speaking, English is much richer than Hebrew*. The number of words in English has been recently pegged at just under 1,000,000 (1 million) words - this includes "double counting" words such as dog - where, at the very least it can be a noun and a verb. Even the most modest estimates peg English at 250,000 words. Hebrew, in contrast, probably has fewer than 80,000 words.

And yet, every now and again, I find myself wanting to use a word that does not exist in English. Four words especially come to mind:

* BeTeavon - the equivalent of Bon-Apetite. Literally translates to "with apetite". I hear people using Bon Aptetite every now and again, but it's not really wide-spread.

* Nu or Noo - a word used to hurry someone. The equivalent of "Tsk"ing.

* Davka- roughly translates to "out of spite", but not quite. Literally translates to something like "actually" (but can have other meanings). Usually used by kids.

* Titchadesh - when someone gets something new (pretty much anything, from matirial things to a new hair-cut), the congratulatory term used is "Titchadesh" which literally translates to "Be New".

Of the four, the word I miss most is "Titchadesh". What do I tell someone who tells me "I got a new iPod"? (Other than "Why the hell did you get an iPod?!") Congratulations doesn't seem to cut it for me.

* This is the moment where my friend Amir usually interjects and complains how in Hebrew both Desk and Table are "Shoolchan", but each finger of the hand has it's own name (as opposed to English where the names of the fingers - other than the thumb and pinky - have something to do with the function of that finger)

Comments

• Anonymous
  May 16, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  May 16, 2006
  Yaakov:
  I know every language is different - I was just lamanting the lack of these words which are useful.
  
  You say "BeTeavon" before people start eating usually - not during.
  
  Bechavana - I actually meant to write "Davka" No idea how it came out as Bechavana.
  
  

• Anonymous
  May 16, 2006
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  July 07, 2006
  My wife speaks German and routinely uses doch with me (I seem to contradict her a lot!).
  
  I speak neither German nor Hebrew; however, I speak Spanish.  They have a verb "aprovechar" which means "to take advantage of an opportunity."  We don't have a similar verb in English, hence we use "aprovechar" around the house.
  
  I love that "Machatonim" exists!  I've always wanted English to have a word for that.

• Anonymous
  July 17, 2008
  surprise surprise, "Nu" is not originally a hebrew word: it exists in the exact same context in russian and latvian for instance. "Nuuu!!!!!" i heard my latvian colleague scream at his hourglass...  i think the best english translation of "Nuu" is really "C'mon already!"

• Anonymous
  December 24, 2008
  Don't forget about Stam, which means something like not.  You can use it to denote that you were kidding or that what you were saying is not important.  It also resembles "never mind."

• Anonymous
  May 22, 2009
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  June 23, 2009
  I agree with Chuck. My ex-wife is Israeli and I use Hebrew words all the time and I'm no stranger to Nu. People often get a confused look when I use it and or other Hebrew words and phrases because I'm not Jewish.

• Anonymous
  June 25, 2009
  The most common equivalent of BeTeavon has become "Enjoy your meal," which waiters say when they are serving you. Sometimes they just say "Enjoy," which sounds more Jewish to me because, perhaps coincidentally, it reminds me of Harry Golden's "Enjoy! Enjoy!"

• Anonymous
  September 20, 2009
  Cool post, but Nu actually comes from Russian. The best translation to English would be "aaaand?"

• Anonymous
  December 29, 2009
  Just come across this site - great! "Nu" .. for our family means so many things .. depending - of course - on intonation, and circumstance.  For me it replaces having to say something like .. and your point is? so? and what now? really? and because you did this you expect what? ok.. but.. and you think that's interesting because? u-huh? My Grandma Rose of blessed memory used "kein-ein -hora" [literally "Against the evil eye"] when talking about bad weather, any misfortune she hoped wouldn't happen. It was really fascinating when studying for my degree as a mature student to come across the whole thing of the "Evil Eye" in the mediterranean in use a couple of thousand yrs ago such as "good eyes" painted on greek fishing boats for protection and to "see" the way ahead in a storm.. Immediately took me back to G-Ma Rose!

• Anonymous
  July 11, 2010
  "davka" means "specifically", doesn't it? "Machatonim" -- what you are to your children's inlaws -- and vice versa.

• Anonymous
  September 13, 2010
  what about STAM? theres no equivalent....

• Anonymous
  March 29, 2011
  "Nu" might not be Hebrew, but it is so well integrated into the language and culture that it may as well be. The best part of "Nu" is the multiple meeaning you can get out of it, simply by changing the tone and length of it.  anything from "Meh" to "hurry up"...in this way I guess it's most similar to the use of "Dude" in US English  (See this: itre.cis.upenn.edu/.../001705.html) And of course, the lack of an English term for "BeTeavon" was always annoying to me when I worked catering.  "Bon Appetit" is French...

• Anonymous
  August 08, 2011
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  December 21, 2012
  HEBREW IS THE HOLY LANGUAGE AND ABOVE ALL AS WAS AND IS THE LANGUAGE OF ELOHIM VE YAHSHUA. WHAT DO YOU ALL USE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE FOR ANYHOW ? TO CURSE SWEAR  WRITING DESPERATE LOVE LETTERS TO SOMEONE WHO PROBABLY DOESN'T CARE ANYTHING ABOUT YOU A BUNCH OF BABBLE AND SO FORTH? YES WE MUST TALK  WHTAEVER LANGUAGE WE ARE ABLE TO BUT GESTURING MORE WORDS IN THE ENGLISH  SO WHAT HALF OF SLANG AND IGNORANCE~ SHALOM~

• Anonymous
  October 17, 2013
  Hebrew is great. But, nothing wrong with English.

• Anonymous
  December 26, 2014
  What about B'asa, sabba, dicaon (it's not really depression) Just bad moon ( especially in the army) Sof H'derech? Muraal? (Overly eager, biased) Al H'apanim? I am sure I can think of a few more. BTW / I found thd same in English, untranslatable words to Hebrew.

• Anonymous
  February 26, 2015
  What about "mazgan"? For all the short English words, "air conditioner" seems like an abomination! Mazgan is so much shorter :-) Totally agree with Esther about "Al Ha'Panim"