Talk:עין הרע

@Wikitiki89: And here's where I'm curious about the gender of the Hebrew term. —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 18:40, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

@Metaknowledge: It's a tricky question. עַיִן is normally feminine, so if you interpret this expression as noun+adjective, then you would expect indefinite עַיִן רָעָה and definite הָעַיִן הָרָעָה. So there are a few possibilities:

• It's actually noun+noun. Which would mean the correct vocalization should technically be עֵין הָרָע and the phrase is feminine and definite.
• It really is noun+adjective with improper definiteness agreement (which itself could have a number of explanations):
  • עַיִן happens to be masculine in this phrase, making the whole phrase masculine.
  • Simply improper gender agreement, leaving the gender of the phrase unclear.
  • The ע had ceased to be pronounced making הָרָעָה and הָרַע homonymous, and this phrase feminine.

To learn more, we would need to know where this spelling first originated, whether there are spelling variations in other manuscripts, etc. --WikiTiki89 19:11, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

@Wikitiki89: That was interesting, thank you. But how is it used in modern Hebrew (i.e., what should we put in the entry)? —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 22:47, 22 March 2017 (UTC)

Neither Morfix nor Even-Shoshan gives a gender. I guess we'll have to do this empirically. --WikiTiki89 15:04, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

That's how I got the Yiddish gender! —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 18:17, 23 March 2017 (UTC)

It's hard to find cases where the gender is evident, but out of the three uses I found so far, all three are feminine:

• הוּא מֻבְטָח שֶׁשׁוּם עַיִן הָרַע לֹא תִּשְׁלֹט בּוֹ
• עין הרע אורבת בתליון הזה!
• בזרעו של יוסף אינה שולטת עין הרע

--WikiTiki89 18:49, 23 March 2017 (UTC)