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# 8. Lexicon and register

**On this page**

1. [Contents](#contents)
2. [8.1 The vocabulary problem of the revival](#81-the-vocabulary-problem-of-the-revival)
3. [8.2 Ben-Yehuda's method, in his own account](#82-ben-yehudas-method-in-his-own-account)
4. [8.3 The Language Committee and the Academy](#83-the-language-committee-and-the-academy)
5. [8.4 How new words are made](#84-how-new-words-are-made)
6. [8.5 Coinages that won and coinages that lost](#85-coinages-that-won-and-coinages-that-lost)
7. [8.6 The inherited layers: Biblical, Mishnaic, Aramaic, Medieval](#86-the-inherited-layers-biblical-mishnaic-aramaic-medieval)
8. [8.7 Loanwords by source](#87-loanwords-by-source)
9. [8.8 Loan verbs and loan morphology](#88-loan-verbs-and-loan-morphology)
10. [8.9 Calques and loan meanings](#89-calques-and-loan-meanings)
11. [8.10 Slang](#810-slang)
12. [8.11 Register](#811-register)
13. [8.12 Norm and use](#812-norm-and-use)
14. [8.13 Lexical resources](#813-lexical-resources)
15. [References](#references)

Where the words of Modern Hebrew come from and how they are used: the vocabulary problem of the revival and how Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the Language Committee and the Academy of the Hebrew Language met it; the ways new words are made (old words with new senses, root-and-pattern coinage, blends, acronyms, suffixes, calques); loanwords by source language, each etymology checked; slang and army slang; and the levels of register, from high literary style to street speech, with the gap between the Academy's norms and what people say. Discourse markers, greetings and swear words are treated as speech acts in [09](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/09-pragmatics-politeness/); this chapter is about the words themselves.

[← README](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/) · [← 07 Syntax](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/07-syntax/) · [09 Pragmatics and politeness →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/09-pragmatics-politeness/)

Etymologies in this chapter were checked on 2026-10-17 against the English Wiktionary extract by kaikki.org (local kaikki.org-dictionary-Hebrew.jsonl, CC BY-SA; consulted, not copied). Where Wiktionary gives no etymology or hedges, the table says so. Transliteration and examples follow [02](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/02-script-and-spelling/).

---

## Contents

- [8.1 The vocabulary problem of the revival](#81-the-vocabulary-problem-of-the-revival)
- [8.2 Ben-Yehuda's method, in his own account](#82-ben-yehudas-method-in-his-own-account)
- [8.3 The Language Committee and the Academy](#83-the-language-committee-and-the-academy)
- [8.4 How new words are made](#84-how-new-words-are-made)
- [8.5 Coinages that won and coinages that lost](#85-coinages-that-won-and-coinages-that-lost)
- [8.6 The inherited layers: Biblical, Mishnaic, Aramaic, Medieval](#86-the-inherited-layers-biblical-mishnaic-aramaic-medieval)
- [8.7 Loanwords by source](#87-loanwords-by-source)
- [8.8 Loan verbs and loan morphology](#88-loan-verbs-and-loan-morphology)
- [8.9 Calques and loan meanings](#89-calques-and-loan-meanings)
- [8.10 Slang](#810-slang)
- [8.11 Register](#811-register)
- [8.12 Norm and use](#812-norm-and-use)
- [8.13 Lexical resources](#813-lexical-resources)
- [References](#references)

---

## 8.1 The vocabulary problem of the revival

Hebrew in the 1880s had an enormous written vocabulary — Bible, Mishna, Talmud (with its Aramaic), midrash, liturgical poetry, medieval philosophy and science, Haskala prose — but large gaps exactly where a spoken language needs words: household objects, food, clothing, tools, plants and animals identified with precision, emotions and casual talk, and the whole of modern technology and administration. Yannai (1982, writing for the Academy) puts it vividly: in the old language no one could buy a railway ticket, tell a plumber where the faucet was, or ask to sharpen a pencil (local: [`lingbulk-1982-yannai-innovation-neologism-modern-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/lingbulk-1982-yannai-innovation-neologism-modern-hebrew/)). Ben-Yehuda describes the same embarrassment from his first attempts at conversation in Hebrew: talk on elevated topics went well enough, but as soon as it turned to simple, everyday things the speakers "were mute" (introduction to his dictionary, § א; paraphrase).

Three sources filled the gap (Yannai 1982; Fellman 1973, *not held*):

1. **Old words**, searched for in every layer of the literature and given new or narrower senses.
2. **Coinage** from Hebrew (and Aramaic) roots in Hebrew patterns.
3. **Borrowing** — reluctantly at first, massively later in the spoken language.

## 8.2 Ben-Yehuda's method, in his own account

Ben-Yehuda's long introduction to his *Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew* (the *Mavo ha-Gadol*, written for the dictionary that began to appear in 1908) is public domain and held locally (Project Ben-Yehuda, m7327.txt). Its main points, paraphrased:

- **The idea.** In 1878, a student in Russia during the Russo-Turkish war, he was struck by the idea of a national revival of Israel in its land. Soon he concluded that a people needs not only its land but its language — and that, while the return to the land depended on others, the return to the language was in the Jews' own hands. Hebrew had to be spoken not only in holy or learned matters but "by young and old, women and children", in every matter of life.
- **The doubt.** Two questions followed: could a people return to a language it had stopped speaking for centuries, and could the language serve every need of life? His first conversations in Hebrew — in Paris and on the way to the Land of Israel — showed him the gaps in everyday vocabulary.
- **The dictionary.** He first collected words in notebooks by subject (all stones, all trees, all tools) because an alphabetical dictionary helps someone who knows a word, not someone looking for one. The final work is alphabetical but groups related words under their heads.
- **Precise meanings.** Because the purpose was speech, a definition like "a kind of stone" or "a kind of tree" was useless: he tried to establish *which* stone (e.g. אחלמה) and *which* tree (תדהר) an old word named, so that a speaker could use it of a real object.
- **Arabic as a sister language.** He compared Hebrew roots systematically with Arabic, for two reasons: living Arabic could settle doubts about the meaning of roots in a language no longer spoken, and where Hebrew lacked a root for a needed word, he held that it was legitimate to take the root from Arabic, "its sister", since such a root had probably existed in Hebrew and been lost. He preferred this to borrowing from European ("Aryan") languages, whose words, he argued, fit the Hebrew patterns only by accident.
- **Medieval Hebrew.** He mined the translators and philosophers of the Middle Ages — the Ibn Tibbon family and their circle — whose words such as אופק "horizon", מרכז "centre", קוטב "pole" had become common property, and pointed to many more forgotten in little-read books.
- **His own coinages.** He included in the dictionary the new words he had made himself for daily life, trade, the household, relations between people and abstract modern ideas, marking them as his.
- **Patterning on Arabic.** When building a noun from an existing root he looked at how Arabic built the corresponding concept: Hebrew, like Arabic, names the tailor after the thread (חייט *khayat*, Arabic *khayyāṭ*), not after cutting cloth as French *tailleur* and German *Schneider* do.

Words credited to Ben-Yehuda by Wiktionary (checked): מילון *milon* "dictionary" (1880, from *mila* "word" + *-on*), עיתון *iton* "newspaper" (*et* "time" + *-on*, after German *Zeitung*), רכבת *rakévet* "train" (root r-k-b "ride"), גלידה *glida* "ice cream" (Aramaic *glida* "ice, frost", matched to Italian *gelato*), אופניים *ofanáyim* "bicycle" (1903, dual of poetic *ofan* "wheel"), מברשת *mivréshet* "brush" (on the model of *brosse/Bürste/brush*), מברק *mivrak* "telegram" (after Arabic *barqiyya*, from *barak* "lightning"), חיידק *khaydak* "bacterium" (*khay* "alive" + *dak* "tiny").

## 8.3 The Language Committee and the Academy

**Va'ad ha-Lashon ha-Ivrit** "the Hebrew Language Committee" was set up in Jerusalem in 1890 by Ben-Yehuda and scholars of grammar, medieval literature, Bible and Talmud — volunteers meeting weekly in a private home and answering questions of usage (Yannai 1982). Yannai argues that the real engine was the **teachers**, organised from 1904: teaching arithmetic, geography and biology in Hebrew, each teacher had invented his own terms, so a pupil moving from Judea to Galilee met a different word for "multiplication". The teachers asked the Committee for standard terminologies for school subjects, crafts and sciences. The Committee's stated aims were to make Hebrew fit for every sphere of life and to preserve its "Oriental" character — its own patterns of word formation and style (Yannai 1982).

**The Academy of the Hebrew Language** (*ha-Akademya la-Lashon ha-Ivrit*) replaced the Committee by a law of 1953, with the duty "to guide the development of the Hebrew language on the basis of research into its periods and branches" (Yannai 1982, quoting the law). It works through professional committees per field, a terminology committee and a grammar committee, and a plenary that approves or rejects. Approved terms are published in the Official Gazette and are **binding on state bodies** — the school system, public broadcasting, the army, municipalities — while for the press and the public they are recommendations (Yannai 1982). By 1982 the Committee and the Academy had codified about sixty thousand terms (ibid.); the Academy publishes them in a searchable online terms database ([terms.hebrew-academy.org.il](https://terms.hebrew-academy.org.il), not checked; the main site returned HTTP 403 to our fetch on 2026-10-17).

The Academy also rules on spelling (the rules for unpointed full spelling, revised 2017; [02](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/02-script-and-spelling/)), transliteration (2006), punctuation, and grammar questions. It does not police speech, and many of its decisions record usage rather than impose it.

## 8.4 How new words are made

### 8.4.1 Old words, new senses

The cheapest coinage is an old word with a new meaning, the old referent being obsolete (Yannai compares English *hose*, which meant something else in Shakespeare's day):

| Word | Old sense | Modern sense | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| חשמל *khashmal* | a shining substance in Ezekiel's vision (meaning uncertain) | electricity | modern sense coined by the poet J. L. Gordon in 1880, because Greek *ēlektron* "amber, electrum" seemed to match (Wiktionary) |
| אקדח *ekdakh* | a precious stone (Isaiah 54:12) | pistol | linked to the root q-d-ḥ "kindle, bore" |
| מכונה *mekhona* | base, stand (of temple vessels) | machine |  |
| עגבנייה *agvaniya* | — (root ʿ-g-b "lust") | tomato | coined by Y. M. Pines in 1886 after German *Liebesapfel* "love apple"; its erotic undertone made it controversial at first (Wiktionary) |
| מטוס *matos* | — | aeroplane | from the root ṭ-w-s "fly" in a tool pattern; Wiktionary gives no etymology |
| פלוגה *pluga* | division, faction (Mishnaic) | army company | root p-l-g "divide" |

### 8.4.2 Root and pattern

The productive heart of Hebrew word formation: put a root into a pattern (*mishkal* for nouns, *binyan* for verbs) and the pattern supplies a category of meaning ([04](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/04-nouns-adjectives-pronouns/), [05](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/05-verbs/)). Ornan (2014) describes the lexicon as a grid of roots × patterns in which many cells are empty and can be filled when a need arises: several thousand roots, 100–120 noun patterns, and only seven verb patterns (local: [`aclbulk-2014-ornan-innovation-verbs-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2014-ornan-innovation-verbs-hebrew/)).

| Pattern | Meaning | Examples |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *maCCeC* (מַקְטֵל) | tool, device | מחשב *makhshev* "computer" (root kh-sh-b "think, calculate"), מזגן *mazgan* "air conditioner", מקרר *mekarer* "fridge" (pi'el participle) |
| *miCCéCet* (מִקְטֶלֶת) | tool, device | מקלדת *mikledet* "keyboard" (from *klid* "key"; Wiktionary), מברשת *mivréshet* "brush" |
| *CaCCan* (קַטְלָן) | agent, profession, trait | שקרן *shakran* "liar", ספרן *safran* "librarian", רקדן *rakdan* "dancer" |
| *-ay* (־אי) | profession | חשמלאי *khashmala'i* "electrician", עיתונאי *itona'i* "journalist" |
| *miCCaC* (מִקְטָל) | place, institution | מטבח *mitbakh* "kitchen" (cognate with Arabic *maṭbakh*), מסעדה *mis'ada* "restaurant", מגרש *migrash* "field (sport)" |
| *CiCuC* (קִטּוּל) | action noun of pi'el | טיפול *tipul* "treatment", חיפוש *khipus* "search" |
| *haCCaCa* | action noun of hif'il | הדפסה *hadpasa* "printing", הסברה *hasbara* "explanation, public diplomacy" |
| *hitCaCCut* | action noun of hitpa'el | התפתחות *hitpatkhut* "development" |
| *-ut* (־וּת) | abstract | מציאות *metsi'ut* "reality", אפשרות *efsharut* "possibility" |
| *-iya* (־ִיָּה) | place, collection | ספרייה *sifriya* "library", נגרייה *nagariya* "carpentry shop" |
| *-on* (־וֹן) | diminutive; also periodical, set | מילון "dictionary", עיתון "newspaper", שעון *sha'on* "clock" (Pines; from *sha'a* "hour"), יישומון *yishumon* "app" (*yishum* "application" + *-on*) |
| *-it* (־ִית) | diminutive, instrument | כפית *kapit* "teaspoon" (*kaf* "spoon"), מכונית *mekhonit* "car" (*mekhona* + *-it*), כוסית *kosit* "small glass" |

Verbs are formed the same way, by putting a root — old, new or foreign — into a binyan, most often pi'el or hitpa'el ([05](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/05-verbs/), [§ 8.8](#88-loan-verbs-and-loan-morphology)).

### 8.4.3 Blends (*hal'ama*)

| Blend | Parts | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| רמזור *ramzor* | *rémez* "hint, signal" + *or* "light" | traffic light (coined by the politician David Remez; Wiktionary) |
| מדרחוב *midrakhov* | *midrakha* "pavement" + *rekhov* "street" | pedestrian mall |
| תפוז *tapuz* | *tapúakh* "apple" + *zahav* "gold" | orange (coined by the lexicographer Isaac Avinery; Wiktionary) |
| שמרטף *shmartaf* | *shamar* "guard" + *taf* "small children" | babysitter; also a verb *le-shmartef* |
| דחפור *dakhpor* | *dakhaf* "push" + *khafar* "dig" | bulldozer |
| תקליטור *taklitor* | *taklit* "record, disc" + *or* "light" | CD |
| פלאפון *pelefon* | *péle* "wonder" + *télefon* | mobile phone (a trade name, now generic) |
| קרנף *karnaf* | *kéren* "horn" + *af* "nose" | rhinoceros |

### 8.4.4 Acronyms and abbreviations

Acronyms are written with gershayim before the last letter ([02](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/02-script-and-spelling/)) and often read as words:

| Acronym | Reading | Expansion | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| צה״ל | *tsáhal* | *tsva ha-hagana le-yisra'el* | the Israel Defence Forces |
| דו״ח | *dú'akh* / *dokh* | *din ve-kheshbon* | report; a (traffic) fine |
| ח״כ | *khaká* / *khaver kenéset* | *khaver kenéset* | Member of Knesset |
| ארה״ב | *artsot ha-brit* (read in full) |  | the USA |
| בי״ס | *beyt séfer* (read in full) |  | school |
| רמטכ״ל | *ramatkal* | *rosh ha-mate ha-klali* | Chief of General Staff |
| מנכ״ל | *mankal* | *menahel klali* | director general, CEO |
| ש.ג. / ש״ג | *shin-gímel* | *shmirat gader* "fence guard" | guard post |

Acronyms can become roots: from *dú'akh* comes the verb *le-davéakh* "to report" (pi'el, root d-w-ḥ), used in speech and in law.

### 8.4.5 Suffixes from Europe

Yiddish and Slavic suffixes are productive in the colloquial language: *-nik* (קיבוצניק *kibútsnik* "kibbutz member", נודניק *núdnik* "pest" — itself from Yiddish), *-chik* / *-tchik* (diminutive: *bakbukchik*), *-le* (diminutive and endearment on names: *Rina'le*), *-izm*, *-ist*, *-izatsya* (internationalisms: סוציאליזם, *normalizatsya*). The suffix *-iya* in טלוויזיה *televízya* "television" reflects a Slavic-type ending (Polish *telewizja*; Wiktionary).

## 8.5 Coinages that won and coinages that lost

The Academy's decisions are recommendations for the public (§ 8.3), and many coinages failed. Examples (common knowledge in the literature; Yannai 1982 notes that each term's fate is decided by usage):

| Concept | Hebrew coinage | Common usage | Status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| computer | מחשב *makhshev* | *makhshev* | coinage won completely |
| internet | מרשתת *mirsheter* (Academy, November 2002) | אינטרנט *ínternet* | coinage lost (Wiktionary) |
| e-mail | דוא״ל *do'al* (*do'ar elektroni*) | *imeyl*, *do'al* in writing | mixed |
| telephone | *sakh-rakhok* "far-talker" (anecdotal, see note) | טלפון *télefon* | loan won |
| tomato | *agvaniya* | *agvaniya* | coinage won after early resistance |
| app | יישומון *yishumon* | *ap*, *aplikátsya* | coinage partly used |
| helicopter | מסוק *masok* | *masok* | won |
| road | כביש *kvish* (Z. Jawitz, from k-b-sh "press, pave") | *kvish* | won |
| ice cream | גלידה | *glida* | won |
| bicycle | אופניים | *ofanáyim* | won |
| car | מכונית *mekhonit* | *mekhonit*, *óto* (internationalism) | both |

(The *sakh-rakhok* story is widely repeated; we have not found a primary source and keep it as anecdote.)

## 8.6 The inherited layers: Biblical, Mishnaic, Aramaic, Medieval

Most of the core vocabulary is inherited from the classical layers ([10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/10-historical-layers/)): the body, kinship, nature, basic verbs. Where Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew differ, Modern Hebrew often took the Mishnaic word for the everyday sense:

| Meaning | Biblical | Mishnaic / Modern | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| tree | עץ *ets* | אילן *ilan* (MH, now literary) | Modern *ets* |
| to see | ראה *ra'a* | ראה; also *hibit* "look" |  |
| to take | לקח | נטל (MH, formal) | Modern *lakakh* |
| we | אנחנו *anákhnu* | אנו *ánu* (MH) | Modern colloquial *anákhnu*, formal *ánu* |
| sun | שמש *shémesh* | חמה *khama* (MH) | Modern *shémesh*, *khama* poetic |
| because | כי *ki* | מפני ש *mipney she-* | both in Modern |
| father, mother | אב, אם *av, em* | אבא, אמא *ába, íma* (Aramaic) | *av, em* formal; *ába, íma* everyday |

**Aramaic** contributed, through the Talmud and the liturgy, a layer that is everywhere in Modern Hebrew: אבא *ába* "dad" and אמא *íma* "mum" (Aramaic *ʾabbā*, *ʾimmā*; Wiktionary), סבתא *sávta* "grandma" (Aramaic), אגב *agav* "by the way" (Jewish Babylonian Aramaic, from *ʿal gav* "on the back of"), דווקא *dávka* "precisely, of all things" (Aramaic *dawqā* "exactness"), ברז *bérez* "tap" (Jewish Palestinian Aramaic *birzā* "bunghole"), מדע *mada* "science" (Aramaic *manda'* "knowledge"), and many words of learned discourse (*kelomar* "that is", *afílu* "even", *bediyuk* "exactly" — the last is Hebrew *b-* + *diyuk*).

**Medieval Hebrew**, especially the translators of philosophy and science from Arabic, gave the abstract vocabulary: אופק *ófek* "horizon", מרכז *merkaz* "centre", קוטב *kotev* "pole", מציאות *metsi'ut* "reality", איכות *eykhut* "quality", כמות *kamut* "quantity" — the last two calqued on Arabic *kayfiyya* and *kammiyya* (Ben-Yehuda's introduction points to the Ibn Tibbons for the first three).

## 8.7 Loanwords by source

Ben-Yehuda wanted Arabic roots and few European words; the spoken language did the opposite in the long run: European internationalisms are everywhere, and Arabic entered not through the Academy but through the street and the army. Yannai (1982), writing for the Academy, says that only "several dozen" Arabic words had been taken over, for lack of cultural contact — an assessment of standard vocabulary; slang is another matter (§ 8.10).

### Yiddish

| Word | Meaning | Source (Wiktionary) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| פראייר *fráyer* | sucker, pushover | Odessa Yiddish *frayer* "dupe", from German *Freier* "john (client of a prostitute)" |
| נודניק *núdnik* | pest, nag | Yiddish *nudnik* |
| שמוק *shmok* | jerk | Yiddish *shmok* |
| שפיץ *shpits* | sharp tip | Yiddish *shpits*, from German *Spitze* |
| שלוק *shluk* | gulp, sip | German *Schluck*, via Yiddish (Wiktionary marks the Yiddish form as uncertain) |
| תכלס *tákhles* | actually, to the point | Yiddish *takhles* "goal", itself from Hebrew *takhlit* "purpose" — a doublet that came back |
| בלגן *balagan* | mess | Yiddish *balagan* ← Polish *bałagan* ← Russian *balagan* ← Persian *bālākhāne* |

### Arabic

| Word | Meaning | Source (Wiktionary) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| יאללה *yála* | come on | Arabic *yallā* |
| סבבה *sababa* | cool, fine | Arabic *ṣabāba* "ardent longing" |
| אחלה *ákhla* | great, the best | Arabic *aḥlā* "sweeter" |
| כיף *kef* | fun | South Levantine Arabic *kīf* "enjoyment" |
| וואלה *wála* | really?!, wow | South Levantine *waḷḷa* ← *wallāhi* "by God" |
| מבסוט *mabsut* | content, happy | Arabic *mabsūṭ* |
| פדיחה *fadíkha* | embarrassment | Arabic *faḍīḥa* "scandal" |
| פשלה *fashla* | blunder | Arabic *fashal* "failure" |
| מסטול *mastul* | stoned, wasted | Arabic *masṭūl* |
| עלק *álek* | as if, supposedly | South Levantine *ʔāl lak* "he told you" |
| חלאס *khálas* | enough! | South Levantine *khalaṣ* |
| סחבק *sákhbak* | buddy, yours truly | Arabic *ṣāḥbak* "your friend" |
| כאפה *kápa* | slap | Arabic *kaff* "palm (of the hand)" |
| אהלן *áhlan* | hi | Arabic *ahlan* |
| חנון *khnun* | nerd | Moroccan Arabic *khnūna* "snot" (homonym of Hebrew *khanun* "merciful") |
| אשכרה *áshkara* | really, for real | ultimately Persian *āshkārā* "openly", via Arabic or Turkish |
| חומוס *khúmus* | hummus | Arabic *ḥummuṣ* "chickpeas" |

Henkin (2020, *not held*) and Rosenthal's dictionaries (§ 8.10) are the main references on Arabic in Hebrew slang.

### Russian and other Slavic

| Word | Meaning | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| קומבינה *kombína* | shady deal, scheme | most likely from Ostap Bender, "the Great Combinator" of Ilf and Petrov's *Twelve Chairs* (Wiktionary, hedged "most likely") |
| בלגן | mess | Russian *balagan* (also via Yiddish) |
| טמבל *témbel* | idiot | Romanian *tembel* ← Ottoman Turkish *tembel* "lazy" ← Persian |
| -nik, -chik | suffixes | Slavic via Yiddish (§ 8.4.5) |

Russian words also entered with the 1990s immigration (in immigrant speech and slang), and Russian-speaking Israelis use a Hebrew-Russian mixed register (Naiditch 2000 — *not held*).

### English

English has been the main source of new loans since the 1960s: *ok*, *bay*, *sóri*, *tánks*, *láyk*, *post*, *imeyl*, *kompyúter* (rare beside *makhshev*), *sténdert* "standard" (Wiktionary), *traktor* "tractor", *kétchap*, *ínternet*, *súper* as an adjective and intensifier "super, great" (Wiktionary: from English; homonymous with *sofer* "writer" in spelling סופר). Many English loans take Hebrew morphology; English-based verbs are listed in § 8.8.

### Ladino, Greek, Romance, others

| Word | Meaning | Source |
| --- | --- | --- |
| ספונג׳ה *sponja* | washing the floor with a squeegee | Ladino *spongia* "sponge" (M. Rozen) or a back-formation from Ladino *sponjador* (R. Rosenthal) — Wiktionary gives both |
| פיתה *pita* | pita bread | Greek *píta* |
| צ׳ופר *chúper* | treat, bonus | Wiktionary: from Spanish *chupar* "suck" — unusual; treat as uncertain |
| קפה *kafe* | coffee | French *café* ← Italian ← Ottoman Turkish ← Arabic *qahwa* |
| אוטובוס *ótobus* | bus | French *autobus* |
| קיטש *kitsh* | kitsch | German *Kitsch* |
| אוניברסיטה *universíta* | university | internationalism (Latin *universitas*) |

### Internationalisms

Words of Greek and Latin origin common to European languages enter with a Hebrew ending *-ya* / *-a*: *politika*, *fízika*, *biológya*, *demokrátya*, *televízya*, *télefon*. Their stress follows the European source, not the Hebrew final-stress rule ([03](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/03-phonology/)).

## 8.8 Loan verbs and loan morphology

A foreign noun or adjective can be borrowed as it is; a foreign verb cannot, because every Hebrew verb must be in a binyan (Ornan 2014). Speakers extract a consonantal root from the foreign word and put it into **pi'el** (active) or **hitpa'el** (middle, reflexive) — the two binyanim that accept roots of four and more consonants ([05](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/05-verbs/)):

| Verb | Root | Source | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| לפקסס *lefakses* | p-k-s-s | fax | to fax |
| לסמס *lesames* | s-m-s | SMS | to text |
| לגגל *legagel* | g-g-l | Google | to google |
| לפרגן *lefargen* | p-r-g-n | Yiddish *farginen* | to give *firgun*, not begrudge ([09](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/09-pragmatics-politeness/)) |
| לשמרטף *leshmartef* | sh-m-r-t-f | blend *shmartaf* | to babysit |
| לנטרל *lenatrel* | n-t-r-l | neutral | to neutralise |
| לתחקר *letakhker* | t-kh-k-r | *takhkir* "debriefing" (from kh-k-r + prefix t-) | to debrief |
| לבלף *lebalef* | b-l-f | bluff | to bluff |
| לדסקס *ledaskes* | d-s-k-s | discuss | to discuss (slang) |

Ornan (2014) also describes the other route: a light verb with a noun, as in English *make an effort*: *la'asot ma'amats* "make an effort", *le-harim télefon* "pick up a phone" (= to phone), *lishlóakh mivrak* "send a telegram", *la'arokh bikur* "pay a visit". Liebeskind and HaCohen-Kerner (2016) built a lexicon of such verb–noun expressions (local: [`lingbulk-2016-liebeskind-lexical-resource-hebrew-verb-noun`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/lingbulk-2016-liebeskind-lexical-resource-hebrew-verb-noun/)).

Loan nouns take Hebrew plurals: *faksim*, *postim*, *djobim*; feminine-looking ones take *-ot*: *pítsa* → *pítsot*, *banána* → *bananot*. Loan adjectives take Hebrew gender and number: *nórmali / nórmalit / nórmaliyim*; *kul* "cool" is usually invariable.

## 8.9 Calques and loan meanings

Many Hebrew idioms are translations of European ones, a point stressed by the hybrid view ([01](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/01-overview/)):

| Hebrew | Literal | Model |
| --- | --- | --- |
| לשחק תפקיד *lesakhek tafkid* | to play a role | European *play a role / spielen eine Rolle* |
| גורד שחקים *gored shkhakim* | sky-scraper | English *skyscraper*, Russian *neboskryob* |
| ירח דבש *yerakh dvash* | honey moon | English *honeymoon* |
| כדור רגל *kadur-régel* | foot ball | English *football* |
| עיתון *iton* | time + -on | German *Zeitung* (Wiktionary) |
| שעון *sha'on* | hour + -on | (Pines) |
| מה נשמע? *ma nishma* | what is heard? | Yiddish *vos hert zikh?* |
| לקחת ללב *lakákhat la-lev* | take to heart | English, German |
| מכונית *mekhonit* | machine + -it | (Hebrew formation; cf. *automobile*) |

(The table keeps only calques whose model is clear; *ma nishma* after Yiddish *vos hert zikh* is the standard example in the literature, e.g. Zuckermann 2003, *not held*.)

## 8.10 Slang

Hebrew slang (*sleng*, also *ivrit meduberet* "spoken Hebrew") is rich and fast-changing. Its main sources:

- **Arabic** (§ 8.7): the largest source of slang words and interjections, taken from contact with Palestinian Arabic and from Jews of Arab lands.
- **Yiddish** (§ 8.7): the older layer, now partly dated.
- **English**: the youngest layer, through media and technology.
- **Army slang**: universal service makes the army a slang factory, and army words spread to civilian speech: ג׳ובניק *djóbnik* (desk-job soldier), *shin-gímel* (guard post), *rasar* (company sergeant major, acronym of *rav-samal rishon*), *kravi* (combat soldier, from *krav* "battle"), *pazam* (seniority; usually expanded as *perek zman minimali* "minimal period of time" — expansions vary in the sources), *gibush* "selection camp" (lit. "crystallisation"), *shmira* "guard duty". Army acronyms are countless; we list only those whose meaning we could check.
- **Internal processes**: the diminutive *-ush* and *-le* on names and nouns; reduplication (*maher-maher* "very quickly"); semantic shifts of native words: *totakh* "cannon" → "awesome person"; *magniv* "cool, amazing" — formally the hif'il participle of g-n-v "steal", and Wiktionary notes possible influence of English *magnificent* or French *magnifique*; *khaval al ha-zman* "a pity about the time" → "amazing" or "awful"; *éser* "ten (out of ten)" → "perfect".

Ruvik Rosenthal's *Dictionary of Israeli Slang* (*Milon ha-Sleng ha-Makif*, 2005) is the standard reference (*not held*); Dahn Ben-Amotz and Netiva Ben-Yehuda's *World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang* (1972, 1982; *not held*) documented the Palmach generation.

Slang greetings, interjections and discourse markers are described as speech acts in [09](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/09-pragmatics-politeness/) (§§ 9.6, 9.10, 9.11); swearing in [09 § 9.12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/09-pragmatics-politeness/#912-swearing-and-insults).

## 8.11 Register

Hebrew speakers and grammarians distinguish several levels (Glinert 1989; Coffin and Bolozky 2005 — *not held*):

| Level | Hebrew name | Where | Marks |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| High literary | *lashon gvoha*, *melitsa* (florid style, of the Haskala) | poetry, ceremonies, legal and religious texts, old-style journalism | biblical and Mishnaic words and syntax, verb object suffixes, inverted word order, *asher*, *hino*, construct chains, *eyno* |
| Standard written | *lashon tiknit / ktuva* | press, Wikipedia, official texts, academic prose | normative morphology, *ki*, *ka'asher*, passives with *al yedey* |
| Standard spoken | *lashon meduberet tiknit* | broadcasting, the Knesset, the classroom | normative forms with colloquial syntax |
| Colloquial | *lashon meduberet*, *ivrit shel ha-rekhov* | conversation | levelled verb forms, *yesh li et*, *ze* as copula, *she-* everywhere, loans, slang |
| Slang | *sleng* | youth, army | § 8.10 |

The same idea at different levels:

| Meaning | High / formal | Standard | Colloquial / slang |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| "very good" | *metuyav* "excellent" | *tov me'od* | *akhla*, *sababa*, *éser* |
| "now" | *ka'et* | *akhshav* | *akhshav* |
| "because" | *mipney she-*, *heyot ve-* | *ki*, *biglal she-* | *ki* |
| "when" | *ka'asher* | *kshe-* | *kshe-* |
| "but" | *akh*, *ulam* | *aval* | *aval*, *bas* (Arabic *bass* "only, enough", slang) |
| "we" | *ánu* | *anákhnu* | *anákhnu* |
| "his house" | *beyt-o* | *beyt-o*, *ha-báyit shelo* | *ha-báyit shelo* |
| "he does not know" | *eyno yodéa* | *hu lo yodéa* | *hu lo yodéa* |

The Knesset Corpus shows register change over time: Goldin et al. (2024) find a reduction in lexical richness in parliamentary speech from 1998 to 2022 (local: [`arxivrecent-2024-goldin-knesset-corpus-annotated-corpus-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/arxivrecent-2024-goldin-knesset-corpus-annotated-corpus-hebrew/)). Zeldes et al. (2022) list the word forms that most separate the 1990–91 *Ha'aretz* treebank from Wikipedia: period words (Kuwait, Soviet, dollar), genre words ("day before yesterday", "week", "but" — narrative and argument), and spelling (the colloquial *הייתה* "was" for *Ha'aretz*'s *היתה*) ([11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/11-ud-analysis/)).

## 8.12 Norm and use

The Academy and the school grammar (*ha-lashon ha-tiknit* "the correct language") keep classical norms that speakers do not follow. Some well-known points (Glinert 1989; Ravid 1995 — *not held*; details in [04](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/04-nouns-adjectives-pronouns/), [05](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/05-verbs/), [07](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/07-syntax/)):

| Norm | Common usage | Chapter |
| --- | --- | --- |
| *shtey-esre* (F) vs *shneym-asar* (M) with gender polarity of numerals | feminine forms for everything: *shalosh sfarim* for *shlosha sfarim* | [04](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/04-nouns-adjectives-pronouns/) |
| *tikhtóvna* (2/3 FPL future) | *tikhtevu* | [05](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/05-verbs/) |
| *ekhtov* (1SG future) | *ani ekhtov*; substandard *ani yikhtov* | [05](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/05-verbs/) |
| *yesh li ha-séfer* | *yesh li et ha-séfer* | [07](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/07-syntax/) |
| *hayu harbe anashim* | *haya harbe anashim* | [07](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/07-syntax/) |
| *atem / aten* distinguished | *atem* for all | [04](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/04-nouns-adjectives-pronouns/) |
| *ha-ish she-dibárti ito* | same; resumptives are normative too | [07](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/07-syntax/) |
| *ha-mekhonit shel ha-mora* vs *mekhonit ha-mora* | analytic *shel* in speech | [04](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/04-nouns-adjectives-pronouns/) |

## 8.13 Lexical resources

Held locally or open (details and licences in [Sources](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/sources/) and [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/12-mova/)):

- **Ben-Yehuda's dictionary**: only the introduction is held (public domain, Project Ben-Yehuda).
- **Hspell 1.4** (AGPL): word list and morphological analyser of modern Hebrew spelling, hspell.
- **MILA lexicon** (Itai, Wintner and Yona 2006): a computational lexicon of contemporary Hebrew (paper local: [`lingbulk-2006-itai-computational-lexicon-contemporary-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/lingbulk-2006-itai-computational-lexicon-contemporary-hebrew/); the lexicon itself not held).
- **Dicta wordlist** (CC BY-NC, tests only) with lemma, root, POS and features, wordlist.
- **UniMorph Hebrew** (CC BY-SA), inflection tables from Wiktionary, unimorph-heb.
- **Wiktionary via kaikki.org** (CC BY-SA), glosses, etymologies, inflections.
- **Klein's etymological dictionary** (1987; Sefaria text CC BY-NC, held under `nc/`; print edition © Carta): etymologies of Modern Hebrew words.
- **Academy terms database** (online; not harvested).
- **Even-Shoshan's dictionary**, the standard Modern Hebrew dictionary (*not held*, copyrighted).

---

## References

Works marked *not held* are not in the local library; see «wanted» in [Sources](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/languages/he/sources/).

- Ben-Amotz, Dahn and Netiva Ben-Yehuda. 1972/1982. *Milon olami le-ivrit meduberet* (World Dictionary of Hebrew Slang). *Not held.*
- Ben-Yehuda, Eliezer. Introduction (*ha-Mavo ha-Gadol*) to *Milon ha-Lashon ha-Ivrit ha-Yeshana ve-ha-Khadasha* (Complete Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Hebrew), 1908–1959. Public domain; Project Ben-Yehuda [benyehuda.org](https://benyehuda.org) — local: m7327.txt.
- Coffin, Edna Amir and Shmuel Bolozky. 2005. *A Reference Grammar of Modern Hebrew*. CUP. *Not held.*
- Fellman, Jack. 1973. *The Revival of a Classical Tongue*. The Hague: Mouton. *Not held.*
- Glinert, Lewis. 1989. *The Grammar of Modern Hebrew*. CUP. *Not held.*
- Goldin, Gili, Nick Howell, Noam Ordan, Ella Rabinovich and Shuly Wintner. 2024. The Knesset Corpus. arXiv:2405.18115. Local: [`arxivrecent-2024-goldin-knesset-corpus-annotated-corpus-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/arxivrecent-2024-goldin-knesset-corpus-annotated-corpus-hebrew/).
- Henkin, Roni. 2020. Arabic loanwords in Hebrew slang (various articles; e.g. in *Journal of Jewish Languages*). *Not held.*
- Itai, Alon, Shuly Wintner and Shlomo Yona. 2006. A Computational Lexicon of Contemporary Hebrew. LREC 2006. Local: [`lingbulk-2006-itai-computational-lexicon-contemporary-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/lingbulk-2006-itai-computational-lexicon-contemporary-hebrew/).
- kaikki.org. English Wiktionary extract, Hebrew. CC BY-SA. [kaikki.org/dictionary/Hebrew](https://kaikki.org/dictionary/Hebrew/) — local: kaikki-enwiktionary-hebrew-aramaic (checked 2026-10-17).
- Klein, Ernest. 1987. *A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language for Readers of English*. Jerusalem: Carta. Sefaria text CC BY-NC, local Klein_Dictionary.jsonl (tests and reference only).
- Liebeskind, Chaya and Yaakov HaCohen-Kerner. 2016. A Lexical Resource of Hebrew Verb-Noun Multi-Word Expressions. LREC 2016. Local: [`lingbulk-2016-liebeskind-lexical-resource-hebrew-verb-noun`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/lingbulk-2016-liebeskind-lexical-resource-hebrew-verb-noun/).
- Naiditch, Larissa. 2000. Hebrew in the speech of Russian immigrants (on Russian–Hebrew mixing). *Not held.*
- Ornan, Uzzi. 2014. Innovation of Verbs in Hebrew. Local: [`aclbulk-2014-ornan-innovation-verbs-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/aclbulk-2014-ornan-innovation-verbs-hebrew/).
- Ravid, Dorit. 1995. *Language Change in Child and Adult Hebrew*. OUP. *Not held.*
- Rosenthal, Ruvik. 2005. *Milon ha-sleng ha-makif* (The Comprehensive Slang Dictionary). Jerusalem: Keter. *Not held.*
- Yannai, Yig'al. 1983. Innovation and Neologism in Modern Hebrew. In B. Snell (ed.), *Term Banks for Tomorrow's World: Translating and the Computer 4* (conference of November 1982). London: Aslib. Local: [`lingbulk-1982-yannai-innovation-neologism-modern-hebrew`](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/lingbulk-1982-yannai-innovation-neologism-modern-hebrew/). (Cited as Yannai 1982 in the text, after the conference year.)
- Zeldes, Amir, Nick Howell, Noam Ordan and Yifat Ben Moshe. 2022. A Second Wave of UD Hebrew Treebanking and Cross-Domain Parsing. EMNLP 2022. [aclanthology.org/2022.emnlp-main.292](https://aclanthology.org/2022.emnlp-main.292/) [our card](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/docs/papers/ud-2022-zeldes-second-wave-ud-hebrew-treebanking/)
- Zuckermann, Ghil'ad. 2003. *Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew*. Palgrave Macmillan. *Not held.*
- Academy of the Hebrew Language. [hebrew-academy.org.il](https://hebrew-academy.org.il/) (returned HTTP 403 on 2026-10-17) and the terms database [terms.hebrew-academy.org.il](https://terms.hebrew-academy.org.il/) (not checked).
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