PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2017-06-02 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Is 'Covfefe' a Word in Arabic? Yiddish? 'Antediluvian'? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 31 May 2017 President Trump send a late-night tweet that began with a complaint about his press coverage and ended with the non-word covfefe, baffling many. While covfefe jokes proliferated, some began speculating that Trump had not accidentally flubbed the word coverage, but instead had been speaking either in code or Arabic. However, Google Translate brings up nothing at all for covfefe in Arabic. Only by turning it into two words and adding an apostrophe — cov fe'fe — one can create a phrase that Google Translate says means I will stand up. That's a bit of a stretch -- and it's not even correct, Rasha Sharif, a linguist and language instructor at the DC-based International Center for Language Studies said. Sharif, who is fluent in multiple Arabic dialects, told us by email, No, the word has nothing to do with the Arabic language. In fact, Arabic does not use a V sound, which already rules out covfefe or cov fe'fe as a word. Sharif says that she does not trust Google Translate, because anyone can edit the translations. I found many words translated wrong in the Language tools, she said. So how do you say I will stand up in Arabic? The nearest translation of the phrase is sa aqif or سأقف, Sharif told us. Variations: A separate rumor, this one published by The Marshall Report, held: The term antediluvian does not refer to a language, but a Biblical time period before the Flood. Needless to say, the writer, Dianne Marshall offered no proof for her claim. (The Marshall Report frequently uses satirical and fake articles as the bases for its posts.) Another rumor, posted to Facebook by one commenter and printed by the web site Godlike Productions held that word came from a Yiddish folktale about a rare butterfly: We contacted Ben Kaplan, the Education Administrator at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, who told us by email, after consulting with colleagues: Isaac L. Bleaman, a PhD candidate and Yiddish scholar at New York University's Linguistics Department added: Covfefe is not a word, nor is it a Nazi, Israeli, or any other type of acronym. It has no meaning. The President clearly mistyped a tweet, which he later deleted. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url