Names in Various Languages
In most languages, the name translates literally into English as "bad eye," "evil eye," "evil look," or just "the eye." Some variants on this general pattern from around the world are:
- In Albanian it is known as "syni keq" (Gheg), or "syri i keq" (Tosk), meaning "bad eye."
- In Arabic, ʿayn al-ḥasūd, عين الحسود, "the eye of envy". ʿAyn ḥārrah (عين حارّة) is also used, literally translating to "hot eye."
- In Armenian, char atchk (չար աչքն) "evil eye" or "bad eye". Regarding the act of giving an evil gaze, it is said (directly translated), "to give with the eye" or in Armenian, "atchkov tal."
- In German, it is called "böser Blick", literally "evil gaze".
- In Greek, to matiasma (μάτιασμα) or mati (μάτι) someone refers to the act of casting the evil eye (mati being the Greek word for eye); also: vaskania (βασκανία, the Greek word for jinx)
- In Hebrew, ayin hara (עין הרע, "evil eye")
- In Hindi-Urdu and other languages of North India and Pakistan, nazar; nazar lagna means to be afflicted by the evil eye.
- In Hungarian, gonosz szem means "evil eye", but more widespread is the expression szemmelverés (lit. "beating with eye") which refers to the supposed/alleged act of harming one by an evil look
- In Italian, the word malocchio refers to the evil eye.
- In Japanese it is known as "邪視" ("jashi").
- In Kannada, it is called "drishti". (But cf. "Drishti (yoga)".)
- In Macedonian it is known as урокливо око.
- In Malayalam it is known as kannu veykkuka - to cast an evil eye while "kannu peduka" means to be on the receiving end of the malefic influence. "kannu dosham" refers to a bad effect caused by an evil eye.
- In Persian it is known as "چشم زخم" (injurious look/eyes causing injury) or "چشم شور" (Salty eye) "Cheshmeh Hasood", meaning Jealous eye, or "Cheshme Nazar" meaning evil eye.
- In Portuguese, it is called "mau olhado", ou "olho gordo" (literally "fat eye"). Both expressions are quite common in Brazil.
- In Romanian, it is known as "deochi", meaning literally "of eye".
- In Russian, "дурной глаз" (durnoy glaz) means "bad/evil eye"; "сглаз" (sglaz) literally means "from eye".
- In Sanskrit, an ancient Indian language, it is called "drishti dosha" meaning malice caused by evil eye. (But cf. "drishti (yoga)".)
- In Serbian, it is called Urokljivo oko (Cyr. Урокљиво око). First word is adjective of the word urok/урок which means spell or curse, and the second one means eye.
- In Spanish, mal de ojo literally means "evil from the eye" as the name does not refer to the actual eye but to the evil that supposedly comes from it. Casting the evil eye is then echar mal de ojo, i.e. "to cast evil from the eye".
- In Tamil, "கண் படுதல்" (kan padudhal) literally means "casting an eye" (with an intention to cause harm). "கண்ணூறு" (kannooru) "harm from the eye"
- In Turkish "nazar boncuğu" looking with kem göz meaning looking with evil eye
Read more about this topic: Evil Eye
Famous quotes containing the words names in, names and/or languages:
“We rarely quote nowadays to appeal to authority ... though we quote sometimes to display our sapience and erudition. Some authors we quote against. Some we quote not at all, offering them our scrupulous avoidance, and so make them part of our “white mythology.” Other authors we constantly invoke, chanting their names in cerebral rituals of propitiation or ancestor worship.”
—Ihab Hassan (b. 1925)
“And even my sense of identity was wrapped in a namelessness often hard to penetrate, as we have just seen I think. And so on for all the other things which made merry with my senses. Yes, even then, when already all was fading, waves and particles, there could be no things but nameless things, no names but thingless names. I say that now, but after all what do I know now about then, now when the icy words hail down upon me, the icy meanings, and the world dies too, foully named.”
—Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)
“People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can’t pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as “exotic” but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.”
—Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)