קומבינה
Hebrew edit
Etymology edit
Most likely from Russian Великий Комбинатор (Velikij Kombinator, “The Great Combinator”) (Hebrew הקומבינטור הגדול (hakombinátor hagadól)), the self-proclaimed title of con man Ostap Bender in the novel The Twelve Chairs, by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov. The title itself is possibly a reference to combinatorial mathematics, or a borrowing from French combine. See комбинатор.
Dr. Rubik Rozental claims it's a loanword from Ladino (Judeo-Spanish).
Pronunciation edit
- (Modern Israeli Hebrew) IPA(key): /komˈbina/
Noun edit
קוֹמְבִּינָה • (kombína) f
- (slang) shady business, deal, or arrangement
- 2004, ישראל סגל [Israel Segal], וכי נחש ממית? [Does the snake kill?], →ISBN, page 36:
- המלחמה פטרה אותו מדאגות הפרנסה, הוא קִיים את משפחתו "על חשבונם" ואולי אפילו עשה עסקים קטנים מהצד — מה שהיה מכונה בעגת המשפחה "מ׳כאפּט צאך, מ׳נֶעמט צאך", כלומר: חוטפים, לוקחים. אם אפשר לעשות קומבינה — למה לא?!
- hamilkhamá pat'rá 'otó mid'agót haparnasá, hú kiyém 'et mishpakhtó “'ál kheshbonám” v'ulái afílu 'asá 'asakím k'taním meihatsád — má shehayá m'khuné ba'agát hamishpakhá “m’khapt tsakh, m’nemt tsakh”, k'lomár: khot'fím, lok'khím. 'im 'efshár la'asót kombína — láma ló?!
- The war exempted him from worrying about making a living, he supported his family “at their expense” and maybe even did some small jobs on the side — what he called in his family jargon “m’khapt tsakh, m’nemt tsakh”, that is to say: we grab, we take. If it's possible to do shady business — why not?!
- (slang) a clever trick designed to beat the system
- (slang) a quick poor-quality solution to a problem