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Monday, July 20, 2009

Stuck on you

“I was SO stuck!”

Does this sound familiar?

If so, you’re either a Heblish-speaker or – more likely – the parent of one.

Originally, I was going to include this expression in my next excerpt from the Official Our Shiputzim Heblish-English Dictionary (the most recent edition is available here).

However, upon reflection, I decided that the term really deserves its own post. After all, it’s apparently extremely popular among the teenager set. And besides, I haven’t quite figured out a good English definition…

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

You see, the Hebrew source for “being stuck” is תקוע (taku’a – literally, stuck).

The phrase refers to that uncomfortable feeling of being awkwardly and self-consciously out-of-place.

Needless to say, teenagers feel this way fairly often.

But even adults can “be stuck” – like when one is invited to a party where one knows no one but the host.

Yet, how does one translate this into English? Is there a single word which best describes this all-too-common sensation? Please leave your suggestions in the comment section.

But in the meantime, I guess we’re all, well, stuck with the Heblish…

smile_teeth

5 comments:

  1. you've finally seen the light.
    SPYYMZ

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi, SPYYMZ! Nice to hear from you.
    When does Y(1)'s keytanah end?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! I too have a running list of fun things my kids say that I wouldn't expect anyone else to understand. They include, among others:

    - (when they were younger, and we were going out)- Who's going to save on us?

    -I'm not regular to that

    -to show you something?

    -these stuff (instead of these things)

    -one one (instead of one at a time)

    -for my good luck... (lemazali hatov - this is the most absurd, in my mind)

    Oh, thanks for giving me a forum to share!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks to your posts I am getting quite knowledgeable about Heblish.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Toby - Thanks for sharing that great list. I especially like the "אני לא רגיל לזה" example.
    Meanwhile, many of your amusing signs look like they were written by a Heblish speaker... and not a very fluent one at that!
    :-)

    Ilana-Davita - Maybe we should think about working together on a Heblish-French dictionary...
    :-)

    ReplyDelete

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