I've surely encountered the literal use before, but the figurative sense of indefensible looms much, much larger in my lexicon. And because the figurative use is so pejorative – not just “incapable of being defended in argument” but “unjustifiable, inexcusable” – I have to make a tiny but conscious adjustment to hear the word as Netanyahu intended it.
Of course, given our different geopolitical situations, it could well be that the literal definition of indefensible is as dominant in Netanyahu's world as the figurative sense is in mine.
I have no idea whether the Hebrew word has the same figurative use as the English one; can somebody enlighten me?
I have no idea whether the Hebrew word has the same figurative use as the English one; can somebody enlighten me?
I agree with you about the different geopolitical situations.
ReplyDelete— K
Kay, Alberta, Canada
An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel
Presumably the figurative sense of "indefensible" is intended here as a background meaning -- that is, "to propose those boundaries is a claim that cannot be defended in argument" as well as "those boundaries cannot be defended by military force".
ReplyDeleteI can't comment on the Hebrew, but it seems to me that 'MetaYahoo' and 'indefensible' occupy semantic spaces that overlap considerably.
ReplyDeleteThis is very, very interesting. I'll share the link with my Hebrew-speaking friends and report back...
ReplyDeleteInteresting question, which, unfortunately, I can't help to answer.
ReplyDeleteI would think the proper word would be undefendable. To me at least, defend and defense have a slightly different meaning. Defend implies a position (physical or conceptual) that needs to be defended, while defense implies the process of mounting a defense.
ReplyDeleteJohn Roth
Is saying something is "addicting" correct? Isn't it "addictive"? I wonder about it every time I hear someone say it.
ReplyDeleteHello, here through Language Hat, with an answer to your closing question: there is no single Hebrew word for 'indefensible'. What gets translated as 'indefensible' is actually a three-word phrase, literally 'not capable of defense'. (Hebrew is poorer than English in derivational morphology, and its equivalents of the affixes in- and -ible aren't very productive.) This phrase is only ever used in its literal meaning, so no, there's no Hebrew parallel for the pejorative sense of 'indefensible' in English.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Meta-Yahoo was trying to say that the 1948 armistice lines or the 1947 UN partition plan were the only non-indefensible outcomes, and that Semitic peoples should stick together, share East Jerusalem, and share the Dream.
ReplyDelete