lexical query

[ronbutters at AOL.COM]

The word is "luck"

------Original Message------
From: Arnold M. Zwicky
Sender: American Dialect Society
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
ReplyTo: American Dialect Society
Sent: Sep 2, 2007 12:07 PM
Subject: [ADS-L] lexical query

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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