חמרמורת

Funny... I probably never came over this word before because I've rarely (maybe never?) got in the situation when it's being used. Anyway, ladies and gentlemen, meet the Hebrew word for hangover: חֲמַרְמוֹרֶת.

There are two interesting things associated with this word:

First, and this is my personal impression, the word is just terrific, it's easy to remember because it's intuitive too: it is obviously derived from the word חָמוּר - severe, and it uses the same pattern as סְחַרְחוֹרֶת - dizziness, and it even sounds the same. To make long story short, it's a very intuitive word, which makes sense even for a not native Hebrew speaker.

However, as Hebrew Wiktionary is explaining [1], the real source of the root [ חמר ] used in this context is the word חֶמֶר [2] which appears to be a forgotten synonim for יין.

The other interesting thing is, there are three more synonims in Hebrew for hangover:

• הנגאובר or הנגאוור - yes, it's just the English word. :)
• סָרֶכֶת - apparently, somebody invented this word, it's still appearing in some dictionaries, but is not really used. The only advantage of this word is that it's build with the same model as other "sickness" names: סכרת, כלבת, אדמת, צהבת, שפעת, נזלת, etc.
• זנבת-סביאה - which litterally means "tail-sickness of boozing"... clumsy, isn't it?

The bottom line is, סחרחורת is the right word, and הנגאובר is probably good for the same people who instead of מסיבה say "פארטי". Should work with the "צפונבונים" in North Tel-Aviv, I guess...