lav davka
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Pronunciations

lav davka (LAHV DAHV-keh) listen

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Definitions

  • adv. Not necessarily.

  • v. (With 'to be') To be questionable, uncertain.

  • v. (With 'to be') To be inexact, approximate.

Example Sentences

  • “I'm lav davka going with you. I may just rent a car for myself.” (Weiser)

  • “It's lav davka that I'll need to go to the store if I can scrape together enough to eat here.” (Weiser)

  • “The amounts on this recipe are lav davka.” (Weiser)

  • "Now, again, I don’t know how comfortable I am saying that when the Mishnah uses the word “BeYado” it’s Lav Davka, becaue Zeus is almost always depicted with a bird, though the bird is rarely actually in his hand." (source)

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Languages of Origin

  • Textual Hebrew
  • Yiddish

Etymology

  • TH לאו דווקא > Y לאַװ־דװקא lav dafke

      • Who Uses This

      • Orthodox: Jews who identify as Orthodox and observe halacha (Jewish law)

      Regions

      • North America

      Dictionaries

      • Frumspeak: The First Dictionary of Yeshivish, by Chaim Weiser (Northvale, 1995).
      • Yinglish: A Lexicon of Judeo-English by Aliza Bulow

      Alternative Spellings

      lav davkah

Notes


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