Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Why is the word "maniac" considered such a strong insult in Hebrew?

+4
−0

When I first moved to Israel, one of the first things I was warned about was using the word "maniac". As an American, this is considered a very minor insult - minor enough for little kids to use without a problem, at least.

In Israel, though, the transliteration מניאק has connotation of a much stronger insult. It's considered one of the more offensive things you can call someone (which, of course, means it sees liberal use amongst the teens).

How did this split happen? Why did the word take on a much more negative connotation in Hebrew than in English?

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

3 comment threads

Is there a native (not loan) word for this? (3 comments)
Did you ask this on https://old.reddit.com/r/LearnHebrew/, https://old.reddit.com/r/hebrew/? (2 comments)
In which language did the meaning shift? Literally, a maniac is a dangerously insane person. In Engli... (1 comment)

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »