This past week, I found myself the proud owner of a new book. Then I opened it and I wasn't so proud. The book was "In Other Words: A Language Lover's Guide to the Most Intriguing Words Around the World," which I rashly purchased off of Amazon thinking it would give me new words to write about.
Nope.
Don't get me wrong - there are tons of fascinating words in the book. But none were particularly useful in the writing of this column. Minus a few laughably random outliers, the words in the book usually fell into one of three general categories: 1) words or idioms too specific to write a widely?applicable column about, 2) words in languages that I had already written about - I don't do repeatsies unless it's worth it - and 3) words that strived to capture the entire ethos of a particular culture in a scant few syllables, which, while fascinating, would result in nothing more that me writing 600 words summarizing some trite and sentimental platitude.
So now I have both a useless book printed on weirdly thick cardstock and an $11.20 charge on my credit card that would've been better spent on lunch. Davka.
Davka? What does "davka" mean? "Davka" is a word I'm using here to express my complete lack of surprise at the inefficacy of the book I've just bought, a word that would have done well to grace the pages of said book. Thankfully, I have sources other than the lovechild of a pop?linguistics enthusiast and a publisher with poor judgment.
"Davka" is an expression used in Modern Hebrew - and by many Jews outside of Israel - which originates from an Aramaic verb that means "to grind up fine" or "to turn into powder." When adopted into Hebrew, the word took on a connotation of precision. If something was done davka, it was done in a very specific way, and only that way. Exactitude can be a wonderful thing - like when a pilot is landing a plane and doesn't miss the runway. I would prefer precision in a situation like that. But in modern usage, "davka" is used when something happens or someone acts in such a particular way as to be particularly exasperating.
There's really not one good English word to adequately capture all the variations of meaning that "davka" can have - which is kind of the point of me writing about it - but a phrase that comes close is "of course," spoken with that distinct inflection of irony, annoyance and resignation. As in, "Of course it happened in that way and not some other way." "Of course the book I thought would help me in writing this column turned out to be useless." "Of course I chose to write a column about untranslatable words in which I try to translate them. Because, just, of course."
"Davka" can be used to set up a contrast: "I want to catch up with the first two seasons of 'Game of Thrones' on Netflix, but out of all the shows they have, 'Game of Thrones' davka isn't one of them." "Davka" can apply to people, too. Do you have a really stubborn, nitpicky friend who simply must follow all the rules just because they're the rules? If they ever say, "That's not allowed!" or they correct your grammar or tell you you're wrong while resolutely refusing to acknowledge your side of an argument, feel free to mutter, "Davka."
Or flip them off. Both work.
There are probably situational examples I've missed, some completely different usage of "davka" I'm unaware of or just don't know how to put into words. And my oversight is, of course, davka.
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