קומבינה
Hebrew
FWOTD – 3 March 2014
Etymology
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 probably a reference to combinatorial mathematics.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /komˈbina/
Noun
קוֹמְבִּינָה • (kombína) f
- (slang) shady business, deal, or arrangement
- 1996, לימור נחמיאס (Limor Nachmias), צְבוֹטוֹתִי (Zvototi), →ISBN, page 178:
- 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
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