When I was in Israel, Israelis used English or Arabic obscenities for emphasis.
Then there’s the occasional list of Frequently Unasked Questions= FUQ.
Yes, I thought of that too – it would actually come quite close. I suspect that, if pronounces the british way, it will be a HUGE hit with teenagers when it gets here – “hey, honey, ya want a [zyoon]?” 
The possibilities are endless! 'Course, that will be the time some tight-asses will choose to be offended.
Too bad we’re all too far Americanized – it will almost certainly be called “Zoon.” I would have loved to see the looks on some people’s faces otherwise! 
Heh, yesterday I almost mentioned the old term for the erstwhile US-USSR “Arms Race” – which was “Merotz HaZiyoon” it took not only Menachem Begin many years to figure out that they had better start talking about “Merotz haKhimush” if they don’t want to get jeered at every time [cough State Radio cough]. I suspect similar things must have happened to Americans who insisted for slightly over-long that the word “gay” is a perfectly good synonym for “happy”…
I’d say euphamisms like litchon (“grind”) or litko’a (“stick” or “nail”) are worse. Hebrew is funny that way - indirect speech can be worse than direct.
You have to remember that Hebrew, as spoken today, is barely a century old - it has relatively few “organic” obscenities. An Israeli stubbing his toe has very few choices when it comes to Hebrew utterences; in all likelihood he’ll end up saying “sheet” (English) or “coosochtoc” (Arabic) or possibly “kibinimaat” (I dunno, Russian?). But what can you say about a language where the most common way of saying farewell is the phrase “Yallah bye”?
When I was there in the mid-80’s there was a bumpersticker with the legend “al tidfak oti cmo ha-Histadru” (pardon my 2-decade-old transliteration), which I assumed was a play on the root DFK meaning “knock” in both the sense of “bump into my car” and “bang” in a sexual sense. Tame enough to go on bumperstickers, though.
The root ZYN is found in the word under discussion, “the letter z,” “weapon,” and “penis.”
Actually the secondary meaning (other than “don’t bang my car”) in this sticker whould have been “don’t fuck me over,” exactly as used by Americans to describe what they feel an unscrupulous employer (or, as in this case, union) was doing to them. Exact same meaning and connotations, exact same play on the sexual background of the word.
Many or even most Hebrew letter names are words in their own right – in this case, “the letter Z,” or zayin, being the old Hebrew word for weapon.
Additionally, the exact same root, or possibly the very-closely-related ZWN (Zayin-Vav-Nun), also means “nourishment” or “food” (e.g.,mazon). A common attempt to avoid the obvious by Biblical scholars is to claim that Rahab of Jericho was a “Food provider” (Zona in the sense of one who provides mazon) rather than a Lady of the Night :rolleyes:
Thanks. I’d wondered if zona was from a related shoresh. There’s a women’s clothing store called Zona near the university, and the sign always makes me laugh.
Heh. Which reminds me of the Giggle Attack I got when driving on the Italian autostrada and coming upon the sign pointing to the nearby Zona Industriella (industrial zone)
Nice!
Is the Johnson Unit the one males swear is six inches, but only looks like four when measured with a ruler?
OK, I’m committing not one, but two faux pas here by both bumping an old(-ish) thread and replying to myself… but.
I happened to be in a record store today. One teen-ager was telling the other about the Zune. He was definitely, happily and smirkingly talking about the “Ziyun” – as, almost immediately, was his friend. So, as I semi-predicted, the name of the contraption, at least, is becoming a hit in its own right… The offenderati cannot be far behind, of course. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from them soon enough 