lexical query

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

an old friend came to me yesterday with a language question
(apparently, it was Ask-A-Linguist Day at the Palo Alto Farmers'
Market): is there a language with a word referring to something that
is both a blessing and a curse?

(obviously, "blessing" and "curse" will require some cultural
translation.)

everybody seems to think that yiddish must be such a language, but no
one has yet come up with a relevant lexical item.

any nominations from the floor?

arnold

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