How to say "notebook" in Arabic
LoanwordMeaningnotebook
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
daftarדפתר
دفتر
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
makhberetمَاخْبِرِت
How the two words are related
Borrowed between the languages (or by both from a third).
Both Arabic daftar and Mishnaic Hebrew דפתר (also spelled diftera) descend from Greek diphthéra — originally a piece of tanned hide used for writing, later any book of pages. Neither language coined the word natively; they borrowed the same Greek term independently, so the resemblance is real but not a shared Semitic root.
Related Hebrew word:דפתרdiftarدِفْتَار
Learn it
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
Cairo's exercise book is a kashkūl; daftar is also heard.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
A different word: kunnāsh is the Darija notebook.
In a phrase
an exercise in the notebook
Plural
broken plural CaCāCiC, the standard pattern for this loanword's shape.