How to say "to bless" in Arabic
CognateMeaningto bless
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
bārakaבארכ
بارك
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
berakhبِرَاخ
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ب-ر-كHebrew root
ב-ר-ךbāraka is Hebrew בֵּרַךְ, both Form-III-style intensives of the same root ב-ר-ך — the root that starts at the knee (a camel's baraka, kneeling at the well) and rises to a blessing, ברכה / baraka. Israeli slang even reborrowed the greeting מברוק, 'congratulations', straight from Arabic mabrūk.
Learn it
In a phrase
May God bless you
The root family
ب-ر-كב-ר-ך· blessing (and kneeling)
Blessing begins at the knee: Hebrew ברך is the knee itself, and Arabic keeps the kneeling verb (baraka — what a camel does at the well). From kneeling grew the blessing — ברכה and baraka — and, delightfully, the pool in both languages: בריכה and birka, originally the watering place where the camels knelt. Israeli slang has even borrowed מברוק back from Arabic mabrūk.
- بَرَكَة barakablessingבְּרָכָהblessing
- مَبْرُوك mabrūkcongratulations! ("blessed")מְבֹרָךְblessed
- بَارَكَ bārakahe blessedבֵּרַךְhe blessed
- بِرْكَة birkapool, pondבְּרֵכָהpool — the same word in both
- تَبَارَكَ tabārakablessed be (He) — as in tabāraka wa-taʿālāיִתְבָּרַךְmay He be blessed