לְשֵׁם שִׁנּוּי At Ulpan La-Inyan, we’re restructuring our approach to social media. Now, instead of using our Facebook page to post entries from Your Daily Dose of Hebrew (Ktzat Ivrit), we’ve created an interactive group, where people can get their Daily Dose and digest it socially, for a change. The Hebrew word for a change is שִׁנּוּי, the noun form of the active-intensive פִּעֵל verb לְשַׁנּוֹת – to change (something). Its root is שׁ.נ.ה(sh.n.h), the same as that of the following words (non-exhaustive list):
שָׁנָה – year שְׁנִיָּה – a second מִשְׁנָה – Mishnah The common denominator among all these words? Repetition: a year comes in cycles, a second is the second division of an hour after the minute, and if someone wants to really learn a Mishnah, s/he needs to repeat it many times. Repetition includes doing something for a second (or third, fourth) time, but better – which is the essence of change.
The English expression for a change becomes לְשֵׁם שִׁנּוּי – literally, for the name (sake) of change.
For example:
הַפַּעַם הִיא הִזְמִינָה גַּם סָלָט, לְשֵׁם שִׁנּוּי.
This time, she ordered salad too, for a change.
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