Translatable but Debatable – ערס ars
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Here’s a word that is not only difficult to translate but unpleasant to discuss and impossible to transliterate well.
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Translatable but Debatable – קטע keta
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Of my print dictionaries, only Oxford (by Ya’acov Levy) acknowledges the show-biz meaning of keta, calling it a performer’s “number.” Viewing life as a cabaret, we may ask when someone behaves strangely “What is his keta?” — that is to say, his item on the program. His routine, his gag, his schtick, his spot, his bit, his piece, his act, his stunt, his stuff, his trick.
Read MoreTranslatable but Debatable – There Is No Zero
/I asked around and my sister-in-law, a Sabra of a certain age, told me the slogan was used years ago by the Payis lottery. On the Internet, all I found was a single hit, in which Shlomo Hillel (of all people), serving as Speaker of the Knesset in 1988, refers to the phrase as if it’s familiar.
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