# Poor you!



## Clara_

שלום חברים​Could anyone please tell me how to say "Poor you!" in Hebrew? 
My friend tells me סיימתי עם המבחנים בפריז יש לי עכשיו בארץso I want to reply "poor you", but not sarcastically if possible.​With my level of Hebrew I would say "אין לך מזל" but it's not so good.

What are better ways to say it?
Thanks!


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## anipo

The word would be מסכן. But as you French know, c'est le ton qui fait la musique! It depends on how you say it.


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## origumi

מסכן שכמותך


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## Clara_

Hi! Thanks for your help!
Does it come from the Arabic "miskin"? French people whose family used to live in Arabic-speaking countries use it (often ironically) so maybe it's a loaned word in Hebrew too?


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## arbelyoni

Clara_ said:


> Hi! Thanks for your help!
> Does it come from the Arabic "miskin"? French people whose family used to live in Arabic-speaking countries use it (often ironically) so maybe it's a loaned word in Hebrew too?



No, it is probably the other way around and Arabic has borrowed it from Hebrew or Aramaic.
מסכן is a biblical word (Ecclesiastes 4:13;9:15-16), originally "poor" in the financial sense of the word.


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## origumi

arbelyoni said:


> No, it is probably the other way around and Arabic has borrowed it from Hebrew or Aramaic.


The word in some variants and practically the same meaning is also attested in Aramaic dialects, Akkadian, Ethiopian languages. So it most likely has ancient Semitic roots.


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## arbelyoni

origumi said:


> The word in some variants and practically the same meaning is also attested in Aramaic dialects, Akkadian, Ethiopian languages. So it most likely has ancient Semitic roots.



I didn't know it also exists in Ethiopian languages...
Klein's CEDEL maintains that the origin is Akkadian (mushkenu: beggar), and that Arabic has borrowed it from Hebrew, Aramaic or Syriac.


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## origumi

arbelyoni said:


> I didn't know it also exists in Ethiopian languages...


Amharic ምስኪን (pronounced meskin) means poor. See for example in the W. Leslau Concise Amharic Dictionary.

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Added: but Laslau (following Von Soden) says that the word is borrowed from Aramaic-Syriac and in turn from Akkadian, so this is consistent with Klein.


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## Flaminius

שכמותך:  אך מבטאים את המילה הזאות?  Shekmotkha?


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## origumi

Flaminius said:


> שכמותך:  אך מבטאים את המילה הזאת?  Shekmotkha?


Exactly.


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## utopia

There's another option איזה מסכן (for male) איזו / איזה מסכנה for female.

It means in a direct translation "what a poor person".


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## scriptum

The word exists in French, too: mesquin.


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## scriptum

It seems to me that the two forms have somewhat different meanings. I would say:
מסכן שכמוך,
but
אידיוט שכמותך
-
And I would translate "poor you" as
מסכן שלי.


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## SugoiNe

utopia said:


> There's another option איזה מסכן (for male) איזו / איזה מסכנה for female.
> 
> It means in a direct translation "what a poor person".


It has a deeper meaning than "what a poor person".
While "(מסכן (שכמותך" simply means "poor one", "איזה מסכן" marks a place where casual speakers will assume you mean "How poor and miserable one is!"
Therefore, using "איזה מסכן" in a casual event can cause an awkward misunderstanding.
If you want to say "Poor you" casually, "מסכן" will definitely do it.
_(A note for Japanese native speakers: "איזה מסכן" can be compared to a common Japanese pharse: "かわいそう")

--
_


scriptum said:


> It seems to me that the two forms have somewhat different meanings. I would say:
> מסכן שכמוך,
> but
> אידיוט שכמותך
> -
> And I would translate "poor you" as
> מסכן שלי.


I'd translate "מסכן שלי" as "my poor little baby".
In my opinion, a casual speaker will almost never use this sentence if it's not their closest friend, and even then it'll remark an unserious tone.


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