lexical query

[Stephen Goranson]

Quoting "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>:

> 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

In Hebrew the Birkat ha-Minim is nominally a blessing, but in effect a
curse on
heretics.

In English "blessing out" someone can mean cursing.

Stephen

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