How to say "flea" in Arabic
CognateMeaningflea
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
بَرْغُوث
barghūthברע'ות'
برغوث
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
פַּרְעוֹשׁ
paroshپَارُوش
How the two words are related
Cognate
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
ب-ر-غ-ثHebrew root
פ-ר-ע-שBarghūth and parʿosh match on two solid regular shifts — غ↔ע (as in gharb/maʿarav, west) and ث↔ש (as in thalāth/shalosh) — with the leading consonant sliding b↔p, an irregular but well-attested wobble for this specific pan-Semitic bug-word (compare Akkadian pursāʾu, Aramaic purʿānā).
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
بَرْغُوت
barghūtברע'ותCairo: barghūt, with th → t.
In a phrase
بَرْغُوث صَغِير
barghūth ṣaghīrברע'ות' צע'ירa small flea
Plural
بَرَاغِيث
barāghīthבראע'ית'broken plural CaCāCīC