How to say "secretary (of a board or committee)" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningsecretary (of a board or committee)
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
amīn sirrאמין סר
أمين سر
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
mazkirمَازْكِير
How the two words are related
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
أ-م-نHebrew root
א-מ-נHebrew's actual word for secretary, מזכיר, is unrelated — a completely different root, ז-כ-ר, 'to remember, mention'. But amīn itself is a rock-solid match: it's the very word already met as 'faithful, trustworthy' (root أ-م-ن, Hebrew's own נאמן/אמין). A secretary, etymologically, is simply someone entrusted to be reliable — the same root behind English-via-Hebrew 'amen' — even though Hebrew never pressed that word into service as a job title.
Related Hebrew word:אמיןaminأَمِين
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Levantine · Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria
A personal secretary or office assistant is usually the French/English loanword sikirtēr; amīn sirr is reserved for the formal secretary of a board or association.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo: sikirtēr, sikirtēra for a woman.
In a phrase
He is the secretary of the association.