UniLang

Ahalan!

I didn't notice a similar topic, so I thought I would post one :idea:

Let's make ourselves a "Top 5 Funniest Words in Hebrew" list

Each one will contribute a word, which he thinks is funny.

When we have a list of about 15-20 words, we will make a poll to determine the funniest one

I'll begin with a word I find extremely funny:

ללגלג, Lelagleg (Liglug) - to sneer, to mock.

What is yours?

I find all pilpul formations are quite funny, especially the word גלגול (gilgul).
But the most funny word I heard of (though it's surly no official verb, and, as I think, it will never become one because it violates some basic rules of verb-building) is להזדנגף (lehizdangef) which is said to be used in Tel Aviv for "take a walk on the Dizengoff-Boulevard"...

מממן m'mamen (financier) wins the alliteration award

Also, the root חמס , similar to חמאס (hamas) the organization, means rob or oppress.

מלפפון makes me chuckle everytime.

Kuba wrote:להזדנגף (lehizdangef) which is said to be used in Tel Aviv for "take a walk on the Dizengoff-Boulevard"

I have NEVER heard of this one before!

Perhaps it is because I never visit Dizengoff-Boulevard

OK, we already have a few words in our list:

[rp]

ללַגלֵג
להזדנגף
לַחמוֹס
מְמַמֵּן
מְלָפְפוֹן

[/rp]

keep up

I found out many Hebrew words are quite funny if one knows their etymologies. For example

נקבה which means feminine comes from נקב which means "fissure, chink"
משפחה which means family, actually means "the place where the slave is"

I wouldn't like to be a woman in ancient Cana'an

hilarious indeed!

I remember how women rose against the word for "female" in some article, claming it is rude to think of them as "holed". Men were quite ok with their meaning of "leaving a memory" (זכר)

there are a couple of expressions/words that seem funny to my german ears...

all forms for the verb "to be" in its future form are weird. my favorite :
יהיה(yihiye) --- he will be

and then, the way you say "shut up" to a male person is amusing, since it reminds of the german word for "stick/cane" (der Stock):

שתוק(stok) --- shut up! (male)

it's as if calling someone "You are a stick", when saying "שתוק", instead of its real meaning "shut up".

OK, updated list:
[rp]
ללַגלֵג - (Le-Lag-Leg)
להזדנגף - (Le-Hiz-Dan-Gef)
לַחמוֹס - (Lach-Mos)
מְמַמֵּן - (Me-Ma-Men)
מְלָפְפוֹן - (Me-La-Fe-Fon)
נְקֵבָה - (Ne-Ke-Va)
מִשְׁפָּחָה - (Mish-Pa-Cha)
יִהיֶה - (Yi-He)
שתוֹק - (Shtok)
[/rp]

Come on, keep adding!

MiOB wrote:Men were quite ok with their meaning of "leaving a memory" (זכר)

Actually I've heard that this may have originally come from the word "דקר" (deker, or dakar), meaning a pick in the sense of an ice pick. Parallels נקבה quite well... although I don't know if the average man would care that much

Parallels נקבה quite well...

Now I can't take the image of a male poking a femlae out of my head...

I believe "דגדגן" fits the bill nicely; it means "clitoris", and while that by itself is not all that funny (though it can be fun, last I heard), I think there is at least a tinge of humor in it, given it's related to the verb
"לדגדג", which means "to tickle". So yes, you guessed it, "דגדגן" is literally "tickler".