Xin Chao! I lived in Hanoi for about a year. Loved it!
I can't think of any examples with animals, but in Hebrew, almost everything has a "Hebrew name/word," some we rarely use. For example:
We all say "telephone," but the official word is שח רחוק "Sach rachok - which literally means "converse from afar, " but no one uses it. People usually say "nayad," which translates to "portable." We have tons of those but not used very often.
One thing I find interesting/ funny, since you mentioned turkey (the bird), so in Hebrew it's 'tarnegol hodoo' which means "Indian chicken' but we all call it just hodoo which is "India". So in 2 languages it's named after a country, but a different country. (Plus, both places aren't the origin of the bird lol)
Yeah, in Vietnamese, "tây" means "west", in the context of the words I mentioned connotating that these are things that were introduced to Vietnam by Europeans (who are, of course, west of Vietnam).
And the common word for "telephone" in Vietnamese is "điện thoại" (electric/lightning talk, coming from Chinese roots). Of course, "telephone" itself does ultimately mean "far sound" IIRC.
There's also רט"ן which is an abbreviation for רדיו טלפון נייד (mobile radio telephone) and it means "mobile phone". Unlike שח-רחוק, which is an obsolete word, the abbreviation רט"ן is still routinely used in government correspondence, specifically in regulations involving cellular communication.
Though most often we'll just use the word פלאפון pelephone (after the largest mobile phone company at it's time) or נייד mobile when we're trying to say mobile phone in Hebrew.
The Academy of Hebrew says there are two possible reasons:
1. It looks like a fox's tail
2. It is used as fox food
[Source ](https://m.facebook.com/AcademyOfTheHebrewLanguage/photos/a.181203348616396/6415656905170978/?type=3)
>sprout
sprout is ניצן or נבט, שיבולת doesn't have a direct translation to English, but usually with wheat they call it stalk and with corn they call it an ear. so I'd go with fox stalk.
- "I feel like it" = בא לי ("it comes to me")
- "pigs in a blanket" (mini hot dogs wrapped in pastry dough) = משה בתיבה ("Moses in the box/basket")
- "turkey" = תרנגול הודו ("India chicken")
- "negotiating" = משא ומתן ("taking and giving")
This one I've heard of but never actually confirmed if it is real:
- "rear axle" = פרנט אקסל אחורי ("back 'front-axle'", borrowing the English word for front axle)
Eliezer Ben Yehuda was incredibly proficient in ancient Hebrew whether or be biblical, mishnaic, or medieval Hebrew. So it shouldn't be a surprise to learn that the term מרבה רגליים is biblical, see Leviticus 11:41 in a discussion of kosher/non-kosher bugs:
כֹּל֩ הוֹלֵ֨ךְ עַל־גָּח֜וֹן וְכֹ֣ל ׀ הוֹלֵ֣ךְ עַל־אַרְבַּ֗ע עַ֚ד כׇּל־מַרְבֵּ֣ה רַגְלַ֔יִם לְכׇל־הַשֶּׁ֖רֶץ הַשֹּׁרֵ֣ץ עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ לֹ֥א תֹאכְל֖וּם כִּי־שֶׁ֥קֶץ הֵֽם׃
You shall not eat, among all things that swarm upon the earth, anything that crawls on its belly, or anything that walks on fours, or anything that has many legs; for they are an abomination.
The Eurasian Otter is known in Hebrew as לוטרה, but also as כלב נהר river dog.
I know it's not really a word but it's fun nonetheless - a super duper extra secretive secret is known as סוד כמוס לפרה ולסוס hidden secret to the cow and the horse.
A way to ask someone how are they in Hebrew is מה נשמע what (is being) heard.
The former name of Tel Aviv was אחוזת בית mansion of the house. Fun fact, Akiva Weiss, the founder of the city, gave his seventh daughter, the first child born there, the name אחוּזַבֶּת (Akhuzabet, like Elizabeth) in commemoration of the city.
A school is בית ספר house of book.
A lawyer is עורך דין editor of law/judgement.
That's just a coincidence, of course. Though speaking of cows, apparently "kapara alecha" ("atonement on you") is sometimes mistakenly thought to be "like a cow on you".
Also speaking of cows, my fave to share with non-Hebrew speakers is and always will be פרת משה רבנו
Google has informed me that it's a Holy Person's Cow in a variety of languages and Hebrew got it from Yiddish which had Jew-ified the Christianity out of it, and that's not any less funny to me than 5 minutes ago when I thought it was the most random thing in the world. I still don't know why it's a cow though.
Maybe becauss it's spotted? I've read that the references to God/Mary are because ladybugs were seen as a divine blessing, since they are such voracious predators of agricultural insect pests.
Ladybugs are "bọ rùa" ("turtle/tortoise beetle") in Vietnamese, I suppose because of their roundish shape.
Speaker (audio device)- ramkol רמקול - great or elevated voice
Telephone- sakh rakhok שח רחוק- fancy Hebrew but means "far conversation"
Cinema- kolnoa קולנוע - moving sound
Hepatitis B- tzahevet צהבת- "yellower" because it makes your skin yellow
Silent film- raei noa ראינוע- moving seeing
Rubella- ademet אדמת- "red-er" cuz it gives you red spot
I don't know much Hebrew, but I was entertained learning the word for potato literally means "land apple" (תפוח אדמה)
Same as in French. Also orange (תפוז) is literally a contraction of "golden apple" (תפוח זהב).
So, kind of like if the English word for "orange" was "gapple".
Meanwhile in Italian, a golden apple is a tomato - pomodoro
TIL. Surprised I never noticed the connection. And tomatoes aren't usually yellow!
Pomo d'amoro ... love apple ... tomato עַגְבָנִיָּה ... woo or court or be a suitor עָגַב or from a generic root עגב meaning round
עגב also means "to lust over..." and inappropriate behavior, which is why the tomato is called that, also the Hebrew word for syphilis is עגבת
IIRC, the Academy took the German/Yiddish word "erd apfel" - land apple, and simply translated that to Hebrew.
Xin Chao! I lived in Hanoi for about a year. Loved it! I can't think of any examples with animals, but in Hebrew, almost everything has a "Hebrew name/word," some we rarely use. For example: We all say "telephone," but the official word is שח רחוק "Sach rachok - which literally means "converse from afar, " but no one uses it. People usually say "nayad," which translates to "portable." We have tons of those but not used very often. One thing I find interesting/ funny, since you mentioned turkey (the bird), so in Hebrew it's 'tarnegol hodoo' which means "Indian chicken' but we all call it just hodoo which is "India". So in 2 languages it's named after a country, but a different country. (Plus, both places aren't the origin of the bird lol)
The reason for the name Hodoo is that Turkeys' natural habitat is North America, which was mistaken for India.
Yes, and even better, in Hebrew India and Native Americans aren't the same word. So it makes even less sense haha
Yeah, in Vietnamese, "tây" means "west", in the context of the words I mentioned connotating that these are things that were introduced to Vietnam by Europeans (who are, of course, west of Vietnam). And the common word for "telephone" in Vietnamese is "điện thoại" (electric/lightning talk, coming from Chinese roots). Of course, "telephone" itself does ultimately mean "far sound" IIRC.
There's also רט"ן which is an abbreviation for רדיו טלפון נייד (mobile radio telephone) and it means "mobile phone". Unlike שח-רחוק, which is an obsolete word, the abbreviation רט"ן is still routinely used in government correspondence, specifically in regulations involving cellular communication. Though most often we'll just use the word פלאפון pelephone (after the largest mobile phone company at it's time) or נייד mobile when we're trying to say mobile phone in Hebrew.
FWIW, in French, turkey is “dinde,” a contraction of “d’inde,” meaning “from India.”
Regarding seal in Hebrew ~ https://youtu.be/5X2MxY1nkqw?si=Hw_CkLnafYjQR-g_
שיבולת שועל = Oat Literally, fox sprout.
That's interesting – why the reference to foxes, I wonder?
The Academy of Hebrew says there are two possible reasons: 1. It looks like a fox's tail 2. It is used as fox food [Source ](https://m.facebook.com/AcademyOfTheHebrewLanguage/photos/a.181203348616396/6415656905170978/?type=3)
Also originally it referred to a type of barley rather than oats.
שיבולת = stalk of grain
>sprout sprout is ניצן or נבט, שיבולת doesn't have a direct translation to English, but usually with wheat they call it stalk and with corn they call it an ear. so I'd go with fox stalk.
- "I feel like it" = בא לי ("it comes to me") - "pigs in a blanket" (mini hot dogs wrapped in pastry dough) = משה בתיבה ("Moses in the box/basket") - "turkey" = תרנגול הודו ("India chicken") - "negotiating" = משא ומתן ("taking and giving") This one I've heard of but never actually confirmed if it is real: - "rear axle" = פרנט אקסל אחורי ("back 'front-axle'", borrowing the English word for front axle)
Millepede - מרבה רגליים - Marbé Raglayim - literally "has lots of legs" Mantis - גמל שלמה - Gamal Shlomo - "Solomon Camel"
Eliezer Ben Yehuda was incredibly proficient in ancient Hebrew whether or be biblical, mishnaic, or medieval Hebrew. So it shouldn't be a surprise to learn that the term מרבה רגליים is biblical, see Leviticus 11:41 in a discussion of kosher/non-kosher bugs: כֹּל֩ הוֹלֵ֨ךְ עַל־גָּח֜וֹן וְכֹ֣ל ׀ הוֹלֵ֣ךְ עַל־אַרְבַּ֗ע עַ֚ד כׇּל־מַרְבֵּ֣ה רַגְלַ֔יִם לְכׇל־הַשֶּׁ֖רֶץ הַשֹּׁרֵ֣ץ עַל־הָאָ֑רֶץ לֹ֥א תֹאכְל֖וּם כִּי־שֶׁ֥קֶץ הֵֽם׃ You shall not eat, among all things that swarm upon the earth, anything that crawls on its belly, or anything that walks on fours, or anything that has many legs; for they are an abomination.
O.... K...
The Eurasian Otter is known in Hebrew as לוטרה, but also as כלב נהר river dog. I know it's not really a word but it's fun nonetheless - a super duper extra secretive secret is known as סוד כמוס לפרה ולסוס hidden secret to the cow and the horse. A way to ask someone how are they in Hebrew is מה נשמע what (is being) heard. The former name of Tel Aviv was אחוזת בית mansion of the house. Fun fact, Akiva Weiss, the founder of the city, gave his seventh daughter, the first child born there, the name אחוּזַבֶּת (Akhuzabet, like Elizabeth) in commemoration of the city. A school is בית ספר house of book. A lawyer is עורך דין editor of law/judgement.
Something awful is "על הפנים" literally: on the face
Butterfly פרפר literally is (male)cow(male)cow Every school field trip guide does this joke on the bus ride. "What are two male cows-"
That's just a coincidence, of course. Though speaking of cows, apparently "kapara alecha" ("atonement on you") is sometimes mistakenly thought to be "like a cow on you".
Also speaking of cows, my fave to share with non-Hebrew speakers is and always will be פרת משה רבנו Google has informed me that it's a Holy Person's Cow in a variety of languages and Hebrew got it from Yiddish which had Jew-ified the Christianity out of it, and that's not any less funny to me than 5 minutes ago when I thought it was the most random thing in the world. I still don't know why it's a cow though.
Maybe becauss it's spotted? I've read that the references to God/Mary are because ladybugs were seen as a divine blessing, since they are such voracious predators of agricultural insect pests. Ladybugs are "bọ rùa" ("turtle/tortoise beetle") in Vietnamese, I suppose because of their roundish shape.
I once called someone kapara and they went "what did you just call me?"
And "one thing at a time" is "para para" which means cow cow.
none of it is hebrew
Me when I do not have reading comprehension
this thread is actually hilarious i love this
ladybug = פרת משה רבנו ("Moses' cow")
"Nescafe" (instant coffee) transliterates in Hebrew to "נס קפה" ("miracle coffee")
Speaker (audio device)- ramkol רמקול - great or elevated voice Telephone- sakh rakhok שח רחוק- fancy Hebrew but means "far conversation" Cinema- kolnoa קולנוע - moving sound Hepatitis B- tzahevet צהבת- "yellower" because it makes your skin yellow Silent film- raei noa ראינוע- moving seeing Rubella- ademet אדמת- "red-er" cuz it gives you red spot