# דווקא (davka)



## rolmich

Could you tell me what is the origin of this word which does not always has an equivalent in other languages.
Thanks in advance for your help.


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## Tararam

It's Aramaic. 
It appears in the Talmud as "precisely" or "exactly". 
Its root דו"ק is close to the Hebrew root די"ק which you might know from words like "דיוק", "דקדקן" "לדייק" , and revolves around punctuality and accuracy. It received another meaning in Israeli colloquial Hebrew which is "spite"/"to spite", which if you think about it, isn't so far from the meaning of "exactly".
"אני אעשה לך דווקא" = "I will spite you" or "I will do it to you exactly like that".


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## rolmich

Thanks Tararam,
I thought it came from arabic, probably because of the "debka" (the dance), but it *davka *came from Aramaic.
I still think there are some uses of the word which necessitate a whole sentence to translate like in :
_From all this crowd this curse had *davka *to fall on me ! _If you translate by "precisely/exactly" it's not enough, the sense of fatality is missing.
In other words, the word is sometimes unique and proper to hebrew only.
Do you agree?


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## scriptum

rolmich said:


> _From all this crowd this curse had *davka *to fall on me ! _If you translate by "precisely/exactly" it's not enough, the sense of fatality is missing.
> In other words, the word is sometimes unique and proper to hebrew only.
> Do you agree?


"Davka" (paraît-il) est très exactement traduit par "c'est... que" / "c'est bien... que" / "c'est juste...que".
"De toute cette foule c'est bien sur moi que ça tombe".


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## rolmich

I only received a partial answer (from Tararam) to my question. So, I reformulate it :
Is *davka *a word proper to hebrew only, needing a whole sentence to translate its meaning (like *nu *and *stam *for ex) ?
Do you know other words which are proper to hebrew only ?


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## origumi

Could you elaborate please - explain what's "proper to Hebrew only".


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## arielipi

It means סיפוק בשפה העברית where it is only satisfied in hebrew, meaning it only exists as a whole in hebrew and never has a direct translation.


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## origumi

arielipi said:


> It means סיפוק בשפה העברית where it is only satisfied in hebrew, meaning it only exists as a whole in hebrew and never has a direct translation.


But nobody in this forum speaks Congolese. So how can we guarantee that something exists only in Hebrew and cannot be translated to Kikongo or Lingala?


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## rolmich

origumi said:


> But nobody in this forum speaks Congolese. So how can we guarantee that something exists only in Hebrew and cannot be translated to Kikongo or Lingala?


I gave *nu *and *stam *as examples. These words are typical of the modern hebrew language and need a whole sentence (or at least several words) to be translated in english, and have also several uses.
Am I clear ?


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## arielipi

Yes you are, and as in nu and stam, davka goes to the same type.

now: it can be used as "especially" (בחרתי דווקא אותה ולא אותה) , "on purpose" (הוא דווקא עושה לה) (הוא דווקא מעצבן אותה) (הוא מעצבן אותה דווקא)
hes doing it to annoy here: "mom, tommy's doing it "on purpose", tell him to stop!!"


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## David S

rolmich, check out the thread I made a few months ago on this very topic of davka. In some cases davka can be translated as precisely or "in fact", in other cases it seems like it's a "modal particle". Other languages like German also have such words: small words that are very difficult to translate but convey the mood of the speaker, in the case of "davka", it's one of spite, annoyance, or exasperation.


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## Ali Smith

I asked someone who knows several languages if he knew Yiddish. He replied אני יודע אנגלית, עברית, ספרדית וקצת ערבית. אני לא יודע יידיש למרות שסבתא שלי דווקא כן יודעת

How would you translate דווקא in this context?

"I know English, Hebrew, Spanish, and a little Arabic. I don't know Yiddish although my grandmother...does indeed know (Yiddish)."

I think he forgot the definite article before סבתא (grandmother), but that's a separate issue.


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