[OFFTOPIC] The word 'davka' is complicated to translate (was: Re: Thunderbird mailer)

[Stan Goodman]

On Thursday 18 August 2011 22:08:29 Omer Zak wrote:
> There is a special blog article devoted to this subject:
> http://elephant.org.il/translate/davka.html

It's not harder to translate than any other word. It's only necessary to 
think what one wants to say, which not everyone does. As I said earlier, 
the word had become overlaid with extraneous meanings, which means only 
that there is an enlarged set of possible meanings for you to pick. 
"Spite", for example, simply doesn't have any connection with the root 
of the word. It's an addon.

Another word with a similar mystique is "Nu", in Yiddish. Any number of 
people will tell you that it is untranslatable, although it is a simple 
Russian word for which one can plug in "Well" in English:

A: Well?					Nu?
B: Ehhhhh, we-e-ell.		Ehhhhh, nu-u-u-u.
A: WELL!!!				NU!!!

-- 
Stan Goodman
Qiryat Tiv'on
Israel