# שאלתי שאלה ימניאק



## Clara_

Shalom !
I am trying to understand the sentence *שאלתי שאלה ימניאק*.My friend and I found that שאלה means _question, problem, request_ and we think that שאלתי is a different form of שאלה.We couldn't find ימניאק in a dictionnary, maybe it is not very used.

Could anyone help us bevakasha?


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## Tamar

שאלה she'ela is question. שאלתי sha'alti means 'I asked'.
The sentence means: I asked a question you bastard 

How lovely


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## bat777

I completely agree with Tamar, and just wanted to add that the word מניאק, which is pronounces _manyak _comes from the English word 'maniac', but as Tamar said, it is closer in meaning to the colloquial usage of 'bastard' than it is to the meaning of 'maniac'.


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## Clara_

This explains why מניאק isn't in the dictionary.  
Thank you both very much for these clear explanations!


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## scriptum

bat777 said:


> I completely agree with Tamar, and just wanted to add that the word מניאק, which is pronounces _manyak _comes from the English word 'maniac', but as Tamar said, it is closer in meaning to the colloquial usage of 'bastard' than it is to the meaning of 'maniac'.


AFAIK, "m*a*nyak" has nothing to do with the English "maniac". It is an Arabic swear-word. The root is n-y-q ("to possess smb in a sexual act"). The only Hebrew word of this root seems to be נאקה ("she-camel").


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## elroy

scriptum said:


> AFAIK, "m*a*nyak" has nothing to do with the English "maniac". It is an Arabic swear-word. The root is n-y-q ("to possess smb in a sexual act"). The only Hebrew word of this root seems to be נאקה ("she-camel").


 You are right, except that the third radical is _k_ (ك) and not _q _(ق), so נאקה (Arabic ناقة) is not related.

This topic has come up before, in this thread.


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## בעל-חלומות

You are right, מניאק and its many variations come from Arabic. Another word from this root in Hebrew is לנאוק - to scream in pain, to moan.

Also, "bastard" in English seems to me like a word with very bad connotations. Maybe it isn't though, I don't know. "manyak" is a lot of times used jokingly, and this is how it looks here to me.

EDIT: I wrote this as Elroy was typing his post. Unless Arabic ك can become ק in Hebrew, my example of לנאוק seems to be wrong. Though it is very close to the Arabic meaning...


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## Nunty

"Bastard" in English is used pretty much like מניאק. A person could even say "You evil bastard" and be furious and about to fight someone, or he could say the same thing while laughing and joking with his best friend. N.B. Pretty much the same caveats on register and appropriateness apply to both words.


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## scriptum

elroy said:


> You are right, except that the third radical is _k_ (ك) and not _q _(ق), so נאקה (Arabic ناقة) is not related.


Elroy, it is very much possible that נאקה is not related; still, as a matter of principle, related Hebrew and Arabic roots do not necessarily have to be identical from the point of view of the emphasis. Cf. "t" in קטל and qatala.


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## elroy

scriptum said:


> Elroy, it is very much possible that נאקה is not related; still, as a matter of principle, related Hebrew and Arabic roots do not necessarily have to be identical from the point of view of the emphasis. Cf. "t" in קטל and qatala.


 Point taken - but assuming that נאקה and ناقة are related, we can deduce that נאקה is not related to منيك (מניאק) because ناقة is not.


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## Gadyc

There was a thread on this subject last year.

IMO, the origin was the word in latin languages maniac / maniaque = foolish or hardly obsessed.
Passed to Arabic, it became sex obsessed. Maybe because of the affinity with n-y-q. (note: in French slang this root is also used).
In Hebrew it kept the same usage as in Arabic, maybe with little nuances.

בעל-החלומות and scriptum, do not look for any root in hebrew. It has no relation with any screaming camel


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## elroy

Gadyc said:


> Passed to Arabic, it became sex obsessed. Maybe because of the affinity with n-y-q.


 I'm not so sure about that. The Arabic word doesn't have to do with being obsessed with sex, but with actual "screwing," to put it mildly.

I'm more inclined to think the similarity with _maniac _is coincidental.


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