# להשתמן



## MiamianIsraeli

I'm sure that I learned the word in ulpan as in "to get fat;" when I used it on erev Shabat with my adoptive family they all said that the word doesn't exits and that you can only say להשמין

מה דעתכם


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## yuvali

Your family were correct. The word for "to get fat" is להשמין.
There is no such word as להשתמן...


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## pachyderm

It does sound very odd in modern colloquial Hebrew in the sense of "getting fat", but Even Shoshan dictionary has several quotes with this sense, e.g.
תאבון בלתי רגיל לאכילה וכשרון להשתמן (בארון)
נדאג שגופם מעט-קט ישתמן (אלתרמן)
I think it IS acceptable even in modern Hebrew in the sense of "becoming lubricated" (I doubt this is what you meant though).


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## MiamianIsraeli

I'm sure that they taught us the word in ulpan and it stuck because there's a logic to it. Customary usage aside, להשמין, sounds more like to fatten, as in להשמין פרה or אוכל משמין but applied to an individual it should be reflexive.

Of course, language is not always logical. I'll have to try to change my thinking.


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## Nunty

Ulpan Hebrew can be unfortunate sometimes, Miamian, in the sense that it may be correct but not colloquial. I remember being approached in the street during the late 1960s by a new immigrant in search of a סח-רחוק ציבורי, a public telephone...


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## MiamianIsraeli

Nun-Translator said:


> Ulpan Hebrew can be unfortunate sometimes, Miamian, in the sense that it may be correct but not colloquial. I remember being approached in the street during the late 1960s by a new immigrant in search of a סח-רחוק ציבורי, a public telephone...


Lol, I have a thing for purity and it to me awhile to stomach saying טלפון


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## elroy

MiamianIsraeli said:


> Lol, I have a thing for purity and it to me awhile to stomach saying טלפון


 Ah - purism will not do as you learn modern Hebrew!


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## MiamianIsraeli

elroy said:


> Ah - purism will not do as you learn modern Hebrew!



אין מה לעשות מתק. אני ככה


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## pachyderm

MiamianIsraeli, though הפעיל normally has a causative meaning, there is a group verbs in הפעיל that have the sense "to become X", compare:
האדים (redden, incidentally the English word shares the double meaning, causative and unaccusative), and its friends הלבין, השחיר, הוריק, הצהיב, הכחיל
הפשיר (defrost + become thawed)
הזקין (become old, I don't think it has the causative meaning; also, הזדקן is more common)
החוויר (become pale)
הסמיק (blushed)
הרצין (become serious, as in פניו הרצינו, מבטו הרצין)


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## MiamianIsraeli

Interesting. I can understand how הרצין could have a reflexive meaning since you cannot become serious unless there's a reason. So it may not be the person who becomes serious, but rather making the issue serious.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that הלבין can be used in connection with teeth, so the הפעיל context also makes sense to me in that context.


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## pachyderm

הרצין is used only for human beings, you can't say המצב הרצין for "the situation got serious".

הלבין, like the English whiten, can be used in both senses:
מלבין כביסה (bleach)
and
שֵעָרוֹ הלבין


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## MiamianIsraeli

pachyderm said:


> הרצין is used only for human beings, you can't say המצב הרצין for "the situation got serious".
> 
> הלבין, like the English whiten, can be used in both senses:
> מלבין כביסה (bleach)
> and
> שֵעָרוֹ הלבין


No, what I mean is that the person assigns a certain level of gravity to the situation.


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