How to say "worker" in Arabic
CognateMeaningworker
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
ʿāmilעאמל
عامل
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
po'elپُوئِل
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ع-م-لHebrew root
ע-מ-לArabic ʿ-m-l 'work, do' is Hebrew ע-מ-ל 'toil': an ʿāmil is a Hebrew עמל, one who labors. Hebrew kept the sweat in the word — עמל is toil — while Arabic made it its everyday verb for doing anything.
Related Hebrew word:עמלamelأَمِل
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In a phrase
The workers are in the factory.
Plural
broken plural CuCCāC — the classic workers' plural (ʿāmil→ʿummāl)
The root family
ع-م-لע-מ-ל· working
A genuinely shared work root: ʿamila is עמל. Hebrew kept the sweat — עמל is toil, honest and heavy — while Arabic generalized it into any doing at all: ʿamal work, ʿāmil worker, istaʿmala "to use". In spoken Levantine ʿimil is simply "to do, to make", the busiest verb on the street.
- عَمِلَ ʿamilahe worked, didעָמַלhe toiled
- عَمَل ʿamalwork, labor; deedעָמָלtoil, labor
- عَامِل ʿāmilworker, laborerעָמֵלtoiler, laborer
- مُعَامَلَة muʿāmalatreatment, dealing (with people)
- اِسْتَعْمَلَ istaʿmalahe used
- عَمَلِيَّة ʿamaliyyaoperation, process