Nope, No War Zone Here, Keep Moving

December 8, 2008 Categories: I Love Hebrew, Israelis Make Me Laugh, The War Zone by 17 Comments

From a fruit juice stand in Tel Aviv. Rimon in English is pomegranate. Well…that’s one translation anyway.

It’s nice going down but the aftertaste is a little explosive.

Is there a word for “proofread” in Hebrew? Just wondering…

Thanks, Rachel!




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17 Comments

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  1. Rafi G December 8, 2008 at 1:59 am #

    whoa! That one is great!

  2. Rafi G December 8, 2008 at 2:00 am #

    but you should have live-blogged it…

  3. Mia* December 8, 2008 at 2:19 am #

    but shouldn’t in be Grenade?

  4. nikki December 8, 2008 at 3:11 am #

    actually, the root is correct. while we associate grenades with weapons of war, the word really does refer originally to the fruit – it’s from the french. (the rounded shape of the weapon is reminiscent of the fruit, hence the association!) you know that great mixer ingredient grenadine? it’s based on pomegranate juice, hence the red color. so in hebrew, “rimon” means both fruit and weapon. while calling pomegranates “grenades” may not be english vernacular, technically it isn’t really wrong. but the sign is funny!

    i’m a nerd english teacher… couldn’t resist.
    ;-)

  5. Leora December 8, 2008 at 5:10 am #

    You got me curious, so I looked up ‘proofread’ and got:

    הִגִּיהַּ, עשה הגהה

  6. Asher December 8, 2008 at 5:43 am #

    http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grenade_(fruit)

  7. Jacob Da Jew December 8, 2008 at 9:05 am #

    Mebbe ze mocher iz saeeing zat he hez ah grenade under heez sheert for all Zee araabs.

  8. Daniel December 8, 2008 at 12:28 pm #

    well, nikki beat me to it:
    http://www.billcasselman.com/wording_room/pomegranate.htm

    same etymology

  9. Sue December 8, 2008 at 2:42 pm #

    I wrote a poem in Hebrew called “Rimonim” after the Yom Kippur War–…Had to do with the fact that we could walk own the street in our neighborhood and pick rimonim off the trees…about the redness- and about the fruit and the weapon–double-entendre—weird—but understandable….BUt this isn’t the only funny translation–what about “betzim”???-MS

  10. Anonymous December 8, 2008 at 8:17 pm #

    Not to mention the other signage…
    (F)Ruit Shake
    Base ‘on’(?)…’in’
    Milk/water

    jodi

  11. muse December 9, 2008 at 11:34 am #

    Nothing beats the “snake bar” which used to be by the Jerusalem bus station. Kosher, too, I believe.

  12. Shoshana December 10, 2008 at 3:03 pm #

    that is right up there with the cafe at binyanei hauma (israel convention center)that has a salad with גריעני חמניות that was translated as “nuclear sunflower”!! (instead of sunflower seeds!)

    considering this is a staple in the national diet here (for bamba graduates!) – I can’t believe they screwed it up!

    … but it does make me laugh every time i order a salad there :)

  13. Benji Lovitt December 11, 2008 at 1:05 am #

    OMIG-D. Shoshana, please take a picture and send it to me! That is priceless!

  14. Anonymous December 11, 2008 at 6:18 am #

    Thanks nikki, I didn’t know that. English teachers are awesome (actually, no, but I’m sure the ones I didn’t have are..)

  15. nikki December 11, 2008 at 4:51 pm #

    shoshana –

    i am laughing so hard right now reading your comment that i am crying! that has to be the best mistranslation ever!

    anon 1.18 — thanks… i think.

  16. Mia December 14, 2008 at 6:58 am #

    sometimes I think people make these mistakes on purpose

  17. sandy December 16, 2008 at 10:59 am #

    AMAZING. BEST ISRAELI ENGLISH MISTAKE EVER.

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